He, who will change the Shinobi
by mlickko
Summary: During the battle on the bridge in Wave, when Naruto used Kyuubi's power, Nine-Tails felt something he detested, Sasuke's new Sharingan. Discovering, that something was preventing his host from reaching his full potential, he did the math. Results? He will give a small helping hand to his host, so that he could surpass the Uchiha. /SmartNaruto, rating may go up.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 – It all started with a promise (... and a bit of evil chakra)**

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

"Normal speech"

'_Inner speech/thoughts'_

**'Kyuubi/Tailed beast speech'**

**xxx**

Rage.

Sorrow.

Even more rage.

Naruto took a last glance at his left, at the unmoving body of his teammate and rival, Sasuke Uchiha.

Oh, how he hated that prick. It was really simple, the boy behaved like an asshole most of the time.

But never once he thought that Sasuke would die before he finally managed to surpass him and rub it in his face.

The mission to the Wave Country was supposed to be an easy C-rank task.

Take the builder, escort him to his land, protect him from stupid bandits.

As the luck usually hated Naruto, it ended completely different.

On their way to Wave, they ran across the Demon Brothers and after that, they met in a fierce battle with the A-ranked missing nin from the Village in the Mist, Zabuza Momoichi. As their sensei happened to be a famous copy-ninja, Kakashi Hatake, they won, thinking that the demon was dead.

However, when Kakashi woke up from chakra exhaustion, as he overused his Sharingan in that fight, they quickly realized that they were tricked and Zabuza was still alive.

They were then waiting for the second attack on the bridge builder, which soon came.

Naruto, Sasuke and even Sakura trained under Kakashi's tutelage for some basics that should have helped them in the upcoming battle.

Only now Naruto knew how much his sensei sucked.

Ever since Kakashi took over Team 7, it was probably only the second time that he trained the young Genins.

It was now evident.

Kakashi picked Zabuza, leaving his accomplice to the Genins... that was a fatal mistake.

Haku, Zabuza's partner, was on much higher level than they could handle.

After creating his _Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals_, Haku quickly showed them, just how much stronger the young shinobi was.

It happened so fast that Naruto was still in shock. Sasuke, after finally activating his Sharingan, could somewhat see the trajectories of Senbon needles, that Haku continuously fired at them.

When Haku noticed it, he switched his target and aimed at Naruto.

Naruto couldn't evade the attack in time, and then something happened.

One second, Sasuke was standing few meters away from him, next one he was falling down after getting hit in vital places with Senbon needles.

The sight of his dead teammate was enough for Naruto to snap.

Now, an evil, demonic chakra started to emerge from his body, engulfing him completely, cracking the ice mirrors with it's pure pressure.

While Haku was still getting over the surprise, Naruto's consciousness slipped away.

* * *

_In Naruto's mindscape_

**"I recognize this chakra... this feeling..." **A giant nine-tailed fox growled in his cage inside Naruto's mind.

**"... Sharingan..." **He finished and widened his eyes as he felt some of his chakra enter Naruto's system.

**"I see... so the brat finally calls upon my power, even if he's doing it unconsciously...aaah, that's a good fee-" **His eyes snapped open as he suddenly felt something in Naruto's body, which forced him to cringe in disgust.

**"So, that's why the kid is still like this... why he has so many problems... disgusting humans. Even I wouldn't go that far..." **Growling again, he tried to push more of his chakra into Naruto, but the Seal on his cage prevented him.

Meanwhile, Naruto woke up to the floating feeling he had in his body.

He blinked and tried to observe his surroundings.

"Where am I? It stinks in here." He grimaced and tilting on one side, he managed to stand up in the water, that was reaching almost to his waist.

"A sewer?" He wondered as he finally recognized his location.

Looking at his right, he noticed weird tubes running along the walls. Liking their colors, he decided to follow them.

Walking slowly, eventually he emerged in a huge open area, with a cage doors at its end.

"What's a cage doing here?" He asked aloud and jumped backwards, after a single blood shot eye appeared inside the dark.

**"You have come, brat... I would welcome you, but you would need to come closer." **Kyuubi said maliciously and licked his teeth.

Naruto gulped in fear at the huge silhouette, that could be seen behind the bars.

"Who are you? Where am I?" He yelled with a hint of fear in his voice.

With an amused expression, Kyuubi dropped his head to look closer at him and grinned deviously.

**"Even someone as dumb as you should have realized the obvious answer, brat." **

Looking offended, Naruto got over his fear and clenched his fists.

"Are you calling me stupid... stupid?" He yelled, making Kyuubi sweatdrop.

_**'I'm officially embarrassed that he's my host... if **__**that**__** won't help, I swear I'll try to kill myself.'**_

**"You can say that... but it's not your fault that you're what you are... and so that you won't ask more pointless questions, I am the great Nine-tailed demon, Kyuubi."**

Naruto recoiled and his eyes bulged out.

"Eeeeeeeh? What are you doing here, stupid fox."

With his mouth twitching, Kyuubi hit the floor with his paw.

**"Silence you disrespectful human. Don't forget with whom you're talking. Normally, I wouldn't even bother with communicating with you, so be thankful." **He roared and made Naruto swallow heavily.

"F-fine, but why should I be thankful? You're the reason Konoha hates me and the reason for all those... " He shuddered and pushed the painful memories back.

Seeing that, Kyuubi was torn between tormenting him with those memories and calming down.

He choose the second option, as he wanted to be done as quickly as he could.

**"I know, that's one of the reasons I hate humans. They are judgemental and incomprehensibly stupid most of the time... I saw what your life was and for surviving to far, you earned a tiny piece of respect from me. But that's it." **He said more calmly.

Naruto growled himself a bit but held his tongue.

"So where am I?" He asked.

**"You are in your mindscape... in your mind. Outside, you called out to my power and when I felt something odd, I pulled you here, so that we could talk." **Kyuubi replied, watching many expressions ran through Naruto's face.

"Odd?"

**"Yes, brat... odd."**

_**'How should I say this without him freaking out... that would be too troublesome...'**_

A short silence fell between them. Naruto was waiting for the Kyuubi to say something and the fox was trying to think how to say what he wanted to say.

Settling on his approach, Kyuubi tilted his head.

**"Brat... did you ever notice, that you are a little bit different from your peers?"** He asked carefully.

Naruto only scratched his head and tilted his head too.

"Uhm, no? I am?"

_**'Oh, Old man Rikudo, give me strength...' **_Kyuubi whined in his mind.

**"Yes, you are. If you looked closer, you'd notice it. Unlike the rest of your peers, you are a bit scrawny, short, obnoxious and loud, have problems molding chakra and most of all, you are quite stupid."**

The blonde in front of him opened his mouth in angry retort but Kyuubi cut him off.

**"Say what you what, be insulted, but it's true and deep down, you know it too. Part of it is your mask, as you don't want to show your true feelings and even your shouting about becoming a Hokage is just to give yourself some courage. I know it all... don't forget that." **It was almost funny, if it wasn't actually sad, seeing as Naruto's expression suddenly fell and settled at anguish.

"I... I guess... so? You liked it didn't you? To see me suffer, to see me being tormented, beaten up... and... _that_..." He unexpectedly yelled surprising the Kyuubi.

With a frown, the nine-tails shook it's head.

**"Maybe at the beginning I enjoyed it, but as those attacks became more frequent and brutal, even I couldn't take it as fun... and **_**that**_** moment... it made even me angry... but enough of this trip to your memories. I only wanted to say one thing. That you are different from the rest of your frien...no... peers, is not completely your fault. When **_**that**_** happened, a seal was put on you that screwed up your brain and affected your body in a bad way." **Kyuubi stated with an obvious disgust in his voice.

Naruto widened his eyes and fell on his butt.

"Wha... what?... Why?" He whispered, not believing that the villagers would resort to even this. Being a ninja was always his dream and they wanted to take away even that?

**"If I had to guess, I'd say that they were afraid that you could say what happened and tried to erase your memories, but failed. Instead they created a part-idiot, who had little chance to become a shinobi of Konoha." **Giant fox replied and wrinkled his nose.

"B-but Hokage-jiji would notice..." Naruto gritted his teeth.

**"From what I recall, and it's not much, since that seal kind of knocked me out in that moment, they covered their tracks, using the help of the hospital staff so that even the Hokage couldn't notice."**

"Why are you telling me this? I can't get rid of that seal myself and I don't want to tell Hokage about this." Naruto asked after a moment of silence.

**"Because... I can get rid of it." **Kyuubi said, shocking the genin.

"Why would you that?...no wait... why should I even trust you? You're trying to get out of this seal, aren't you?" Naruto exclaimed, surprising the fox.

_**'Sooo, he has some moments of clarity even now.'**_

**"Yes, I want to get out of the seal... but I'm also immortal so I can wait for my release and right now, I'm interested in what you could do with yourself without having restraints... additionally, I felt your teammate activating his Sharingan... and let me tell you one thing. I hate humans... but if there's is something I hate more, it's the cursed Sharingan of Uchiha's... don't ask me why... but it's like that, and I decided to help you so that you could show him that being an Uchiha doesn't mean he's the best... to put it bluntly, I want to see you kick his ass so hard, he wouldn't be able to sit for a week." **Kyuubi stated with a dangerous glint in his eyes, making Naruto back away a little.

_'__**Well... I'd be happier if every Uchiha ended up dead meat, but for now, this would be enough.'**_

"How should I know that you're not tricking me?" Naruto questioned the Kyuubi.

The great demon sighed.

**"You're still asking about that? I already told you... but if you're still suspicious... the only thing that needs to be done for me to be able to help you, is to loosen this seal that keeps me here. But only a tiny bit. I need to push a bit more chakra into your system to be able to flush that blasted thing from you. I'm not asking for more. Even you should know, that until you completely rip this seal away, I can't get out." **He explained and almost laughed when Naruto tried to think of another argument.

When nothing came up to his mind, Naruto slowly nodded.

"Fine. I'll do it."

Carefully walking to the cage, Naruto jumped to the seal and lifted the right corner of it.

Jumping back down, he widened his eyes as he felt more of Kyuubi's chakra entering his system.

_'So much chakra from loosing the seal only this much?... that fox must really be crazy strong.' _He gulped and looked back at Kyuubi, who closed his eyes and focused.

**"Go back to the Real World, I'll work quick and for that short period you can use the rest of my chakra to defeat the one who's trying to defeat you... oh and so you know, your precious Uchiha isn't dead, that boy you're fighting against only put him into a sleep similar to a death state." **Kyuubi mumbled when Naruto stared to feel his presence vanishing.

"Aaah... that's good. I still need to kick his ass... and Sakura would be devastated." He replied and disappeared.

_**'That infatuation with the girl is weird too... I should look for any other seal.' **_The fox thought and got to work.

* * *

_Real World_

_'What is this chakra? It's so... evil... and it's even changing its form... but that's impossible!' _Haku thought as he watched the red chakra swirling around Naruto.

He looked closer at the genin and widened his eyes.

_'The cuts on his hands... they are healing! What is this boy?!' _He was shaken out of his stupor when Naruto suddenly turned his head and looked him directly into his eye.

Naruto's eyes were no longer the same blue color he always had. Instead, they were dark orange, almost red, with slits for pupils.

Overall... he was looking more feral and dangerous than ever.

Glancing at unconscious Sasuke again, he raised his head and roared, just as Haku shot another set of senbons at him, knocking them down with sonic pressure.

_'What the?' _Haku thought and quickly flashed to the next mirror when he barely noticed Naruto's fist closing on him.

_'Fast!' _

Without loosing any moment, Haku started to flash across his mirrors, always launching a set of needles at him while inside a mirror for a moment.

When he couldn't hit him, as the blonde started to dodge them, he thought he couldn't get more surprised.

He was wrong.

Just as he was trying to flash to the next ice mirror, he felt a hand gripping his wrist and he turned his head in shock.

_'No way! He caught me?'_

He couldn't think more as a quick and heavy right hook sent him crashing through his own jutsu and he painfully landed on the cold stone, outside of his ice dome.

Spitting blood on the floor, he barely had enough strength to stand again and Naruto was already in mid-jump, aiming another punch at him.

With a sudden realisation, a sad smile settled on his face.

_'Zabuza-san... I cannot defeat this boy...'_

The jinchuuriki stopped his fist a mere inch before Haku's face as he finally registered his opponent's face.

Haku's mask fell just as was trying to stand up and now it was the only thing that probably saved him.

"You... you're from that time in the forest..." Naruto choked out, his fist still trembling.

"Yes... why did yo stop? I killed your precious friend, don't you want to avenge him?" Haku asked dully.

Slowly retracting his hand, Naruto shook his head.

"Sasuke is not dead."

"Don't lie to yourself, he's dead and I-" He was interrupted when Naruto lightly punched him, enough to send him on the floor again.

"_You_ don't lie to me... you did to Sasuke the same thing you did to Zabuza when we first fought him. You just put him to sleep." Naruto said and glanced at wide-eyed Haku.

"So you noticed... but it doesn't matter... I failed Zabuza-san... you defeated me, taking away my only reason to live as Zabuza-san has no need for a weak weapon." Haku smiled at him and stood up again.

Naruto gritted his teeth.

"Why are doing this for a guy who sees you like a disposable trash? I don't understand it! Is he so important to you?" He yelled at Haku, who only looked down.

"I had my precious and important people once... my parents..."

"So-" Naruto was cut off when Haku continued.

"... until my father killed my mother and tried to kill me." He finished, freezing Naruto with his words.

"Wha-what?"

Blinking, Haku looked at his hands and grimaced.

"I was born in a snowy village in the Mist country, where after countless civil wars those with advanced blood abilities... with Bloodline limits became hated..."

"You mean.. your ice?" Naruto asked and watched as Haku sadly nodded.

"Yes... a person with a Bloodline limit could be used as a powerful weapon and kill many people with his special abilities... that happened many times so the rest of villagers started hunting those with Bloodline limits, forcing them to go into hiding... your friend with Sharingan must have lived through hardships too, as we are often feared...one day, my father found out that my mother was one of them and I carried her Bloodline limit too and he got enraged."

_'That's cruel...' _Naruto thought.

"Before I knew what was happening... I killed my father and realized the painful truth..."

"Painful truth?"

Haku nodded.

"That in this world... I am an unwanted person."

Flash of recognition flew across Naruto's eyes when he realized something.

_'He's the same as me...'_

"Zabuza-san found me and took me in... he gave me a purpose for living... I was so happy..." Naruto widened his eyes when a tear escaped from Haku's eye.

"And now I failed him...Naruto-kun... please... kill me." Haku stated numbly, staring directly into Naruto's eyes.

The genin backed away and swallowed heavily.

"Wha... no! You're not just a weapon! You're a person just as I am, just as Zabuza is and just as anyone else is! If you failed Zabuza, then find another purpose in your life! Don't just give up!" Naruto jumped back and grabbed Haku by his shoulders, shaking with him.

Haku only smiled at him.

"I see... you never killed before... you are kind, too. However, you need to learn that in this profession... when being a ninja, you can't sometimes choose what to do and sometimes you have to kill even those close to you."

When Naruto shook his head, Haku's face hardened.

"Do it, Naruto... please... I cannot live without Zabuza-san... please accept this. You will only do me a favour by doing this. Sooner or later, you'd need to have your first kill and it will be rough. Do it now and you'll at least have time to get over it... if you won't do it, I will really kill your friend." Widening his eyes further, Naruto looked at Haku, who had only submission but also resolve written on his face.

With shaking hands, he took out his kunai and raised his hand.

Seeing that, Haku grabbed it and put it over his heart.

"Thank you, Naruto... do it and do not mourn me, as I'll be in a better place... do it and become stronger... I can see it in your eyes... you lived through many hardships yourself, but there is still the Will to keep on living in them... the urge to change things, to change the ways of shinobi... promise me that you'll do that... and I'll be the first one to tell you this..."

Haku trailed off and unexpectedly he closed on Naruto and lightly kissed him on the lips.

"I believe in you." He said and put both of his hands on Naruto's.

With a smile and just before he forced the kunai in his heart, he chuckled at Naruto's expression.

"Just so you know... I lied. I'm actually a girl."

...

When Naruto was able to move again, his mind finally understood what happened.

He wanted to touch his mouth, but with a horror he noticed that his hands were covered in blood.

As he glanced down, at the ground in front of him, he found a lifeless body of Haku lying in a pool of blood, but still wearing a genuine and happy smile.

It was in that moment when the mist surrounding the bridge cleared itself, showing every member of Team Seven, along with Zabuza still standing although he was surrounded by Kakashi's summons that were keeping him in one place.

"Naruto!... I'm glad that you're okay..." Kakashi's relieved voice trailed off when he noticed that Naruto was shaking and that his hands were covered in blood.

Seeing the dead body next to him, he quickly understood the situation.

_'First kill... and it must have happened right now... damn..' _Kakashi cursed mentally and prepared his Chidori, so that he could finish off Zabuza.

"Impossible... Haku lost?" Zabuza whispered in disbelief.

"Naruto! Where is Sasuke-kun?" Sakura yelled at him frantically and seeing Sasuke's unmoving body in the distance, she widened her eyes and ran to him, not giving Naruto even one look.

_'Sasuke?' _Kakashi thought worriedly but forced himself to focus on Zabuza, who still couldn't get over his shock.

Just as Kakashi wanted to jump and Zabuza and kill him off, a sly voice cut through the silence.

"What is this? You couldn't handle those weak Konoha ninjas? Pathetic... and you call yourself a Demon. But I guess I'm in luck. I never really intended to pay you, rather I wanted to kill you afterwards and this just makes things easier."

"Shit." Kakashi cursed again.

_'I'm too low on chakra.'_

In the distance, he could see Gato with his regiment of bandits staring at Zabuza scornfully.

The Demon of the Mist glared at the short business man.

"Kakashi..." Zabuza called out to the Jonin.

"... this fight is over... I no longer have any reason to go after Tazuna, therefore our fight is over."

Kakashi looked only slightly surprised, but quickly nodded.

"Right."

As Gato walked forward, he noticed Haku's lifeless body.

"Oh yeah, that's the bastard that almost broke my arm... oi, you lot, give me some arrow so I can shoot him!" He yelled at his bandits, who gave him a small crossbow with a single arrow.

Gato aimed at Haku and took the shot, which was heading to Haku's head.

When Kakashi noticed it, he deeply frowned. Even in the war, mutilating dead bodies was considered disgusting.

Just when he wanted to turn his head away, from the corner of his eye he saw small movement and widened his eyes.

In the last second, before the arrow hit him, Naruto jumped in front of Haku, deflecting the shot with a kunai.

"Naruto..."

"You bastard..." He quietly whispered and the red chakra that almost disappeared from him, engulfed him once more, slightly scaring the bandits with its evil nature.

_'So I was right... he's now able to tap into Kyuubi's chakra... Naruto, be carefull, you're still not over your first kill...' _Kakashi thought worriedly. Last time he felt this chakra, he lost his sensei and a lot of his friends and given Naruto's momental emotional state... he was afraid that something bad could happen.

"You bastard..." Naruto repeated but this time more loudly and surprisingly, he turned to Zabuza.

"Say something you bastard... weren't you always with Haku? Don't you feel anything at all?"

"Shut up, kid..." Zabuza growled at him.

"... I used Haku just as Gato used me... I already told you. In shinobi world, there are those who use and those who are used. We, shinobi, are simply a tools to be used by our leaders. It's the same with Haku... I only wanted the blood she carried in her veins, not her... that's all."

_'She?' _Kakashi thought in surprise.

Naruto widened his eyes and took a step towards Zabuza.

"Hey... do you really mean that?"

Kakashi jumped to Naruto and wanted to grab him, but the genin ducked under him.

"Stop, Naruto! He's not our enemy anymore and...!" Kakashi tried to stop him.

"BULLSHIT! HE IS **MY **ENEMY!" Naruto yelled, pointing at Zabuza.

Meanwhile, Gato turned to his henchmen.

"Who's this annoying brat?"

"She... she really loved you goddamnit! She loved you so much, that she was willing to die for you!" Naruto yelled at Zabuza again.

"Do you really... really feel nothing at all?... If I become as strong as you... will I really become like you? She threw away her life for you... died, thinking she was just a tool to you..." When his tear fell on the ground, Naruto clenched his fists.

"... that's not .. that's just too sad..." He couldn't continue anymore, but he raised his head when Zabuza interrupted him.

"Kid... just... you don't need to yell anymore..." As Zabuza turned his, head towards him, Naruto noticed a lone tear trying to escape from Zabuza's eye and his own tears multiplied.

"... Haku was too kind for his own good... you also noticed it didn't you? That even when he was fighting, he couldn't bring himself to kill you and only tried to knock you out..." Zabuza grimaced and looked up in the sky.

"A shinobi is still a human being after all... and I've just lost it all... "

"...kid, let me borrow your kunai." He stated and glanced at Naruto who nodded and tossed him the small weapon.

When Zabuza jumped towards the bandits and eventually cut off Gato's head, the Kyuubi's chakra slowly started to disappear.

Kakashi almost wanted to sigh in relief, when Naruto suddenly screamed and fell on the floor, unconscious.

So instead, his eyes widened in alarm and quickly got to him, trying to find out what happened.

"Sensei! Sasuke-kun is alive! He's okay!" He heard Sakura shouting at him from a distance.

Nodding to himself, glad that his students survived, he found out nothing out of the ordinary in the blonde.

_'He would almost look asleep if he wasn't wearing that painful expression.'_

After the citizens of the village, leaded by Inari, Tazuna's son, came and with Kakashi's help scared off the rest of the bandits, Kakashi moved Zabuza, so that he could look one last time at Haku's smiling face, before finally succumbing to his injuries.

"It's over..." Kakashi mumbled tiredly and let himself and his students to be carried to Tazuna's house.

* * *

Next time Naruto woke up, was in the middle on the night.

_'Damn... my head hurts... and I feel... weird... ' _He thought and waited till his eyes got used to the darkness.

When they did, he realized, that he was back in Tazuna's house, but he had no idea how many days passed since the battle of the bridge.

_'Bridge...'_ Naruto grimaced, when he remembered what happened in that fight.

Memories of Haku... her smile, goodbye kiss and his kunai in her heart, flooded Naruto's mind and he had to fight the urge to vomit.

_'I hope that your words were true, Haku, and that you are indeed in a better place... you would be happy to know, that after all, Zabuza loved you too and you weren't just a simple tool to him.' _Blinking, trying to get rid of a tear in his eye, he sighed.

After he blacked out at the bridge, the only thing he could remember, was the fact that every memory that was stored in his mind replayed itself, what wasn't very comfortable. However, it felt like he could finally try to move on from them and not stay like he was until yesterday - trying to bury them to the back of his mind and forcing a mask everyday, just to fool the rest of the villagers.

Yes, he decided that it was enough of the overly cheerful Naruto that Konoha knew. It was time for more collected Uzumaki, a shinobi that will train himself continuously, until he'll show everyone, just how wrong they were, when they tried to kick him out from Konoha.

_'Wait a minute... I can... think more clearly and I'm even using words that I thought to be too difficult to use in actual speech... whoa, speech... never used that word before...' _Naruto widened his eyes a little.

_'So I guess the fox didn't lie and he really got rid of those seals...' _The discovery that those seals really existed however, saddened and deeply hurt Naruto.

He never liked villagers of Konoha, along with its shinobi, besides few exceptions.

But this new knowledge was taking even that small amount of love he held towards Konoha.

_'I shouldn't think like that... well, I suppose I should visit the fox and thank him.'_

Naruto has never before tried to get inside his mindscape of his own volition, but now that he knew it was possible, he concentrated and after a few minutes, he felt his consciousness slipping.

* * *

_Naruto's mindscape_

"Oi, Kyuubi, where are you." He yelled as soon as he appeared in the familiar sewers.

**"You are loud, brat..." **Kyuubi growled tiredly from behind the bars, opening one of his eyes.

When he noticed that Naruto had an odd expression on his face, he came a little bit closer.

**"What is it, brat... if you haven't noticed, I was sleeping. Getting rid of that seal without screwing you up was more difficult than I thought. But it seems my efforts are bearing fruits, you already look less stupid that you did before."** He grinned, showing sharp set of teeth to him.

"Hush, furball, I'm trying to say 'thanks for getting rid of that seal'... but it's not that easy as I still kind of resent you." Naruto frowned and raised his head to stare into Kyuubi's eye.

**"I don't need your thanks, impudent child... just do what I told you and get strong enough, so that you won't embarrass me as my host." **Nine-tails replied with a twitching eye.

He didn't appreciated the nickname 'furball'.

"Yeah, I was already thinking about it. H-haku said that she believed that I could change things, that I could go far and I don't intend to disappoint her. As soon as we're back in village, I'll train harder than ever." Naruto exclaimed, resolve burning in his eyes.

**"If I knew that all it took for you to try and get stronger was a simple kiss, I'd call a stranger." **Kyuubi smirked, but immediately he realized his mistake, when Naruto visibly cringed as a bad memory flashed across his mind.

"Yeah..." He agreed numbly.

_**'Ah... and there went his resolve... ' **_The giant fox thought grimly.

**"About your training... I'll give you one tip how to get stronger even faster... " **He continued, instantly getting Naruto's attention.

"Really? What is it?"

Shaking his head at the quick turn of his emotions, Kyuubi sighed.

**"You should have realized it by now and maybe it would be better if you thought about it yourself, but we've been talking too much lately and I don't want to see you so soon, so I'll tell you. Your shadow clones." **

Naruto just raised his eyebrow, ignoring the insult.

"What about them?"

**"Don't you think it's interesting that the Multiple Shadow Clone jutsu is a forbidden technique? Would it be just for the fact that it uses great amounts of chakra? No. I realized it as soon as you started to use it. Every experience that each clone accumulates, is transmitted back to the original user as soon as the clone is dispelled. Think about you chakra reserves and that you can create almost a thousand of them." **Kyuubi stated and waited for the wheels in Naruto's head to spin.

It took him only a few seconds, but when he figured it out, he widened his eyes and pointed at the fox.

"Aaaaah! No freaking way... that's is so overpowered jutsu! If I'll use my clones to train... I could be on chunin level soon!"

Kyuubi grinned deviously at him.

**"Indeed. Do yourself a favour and train especially hard. Just one more advice... don't release your clones all at the same time... you could faint from information overload. Right now you are weak, a lot weaker than the Uchiha brat... at least without using my chakra,so train your body, train your mind, train your chakra control and widen your jutsu repertoar. These are the main parts that you should concentrate on. The rest is on you... and now go away, I want to sleep." **With that farewell gift, Kyuubi crawled further into the cage and lied down.

_'You'll see Haku. I'll do it... I'll change the shinobi ways.'_ Naruto thought with clenched fists and his resolve ignited itself again.

When he disappeared from his own mindscape, Kyubi finally closed his eyes, satisfied with himself.

_**'Now... show me what you can do... show me that you're not a weakling and earn my respect. If you do good enough... I'll may even have a surprise for you, Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze.'**_

* * *

_Real World_

When Naruto awoke for the second time, light was already piercing through the windows, brightening the room.

"I see that you are finally with us, Naruto. I'm glad." Kakashi's voice cut through the silence, just as Naruto was about to stand up.

Turning around to face him, Naruto glanced at the rest of the room. Finding it empty, he motioned his sensei to sit next to him.

"What is it, Naruto? Want to talk about your first kill? It's always a bad experience but..." He trailed off when Naruto shook his head.

"No, Kakashi-sensei... I... I think I'll be okay. H-haku was right, I needed this sooner or later and it was better to do it when things weren't as dangerous as they could be."

Kakashi only eye-smiled at him from behind his mask.

_'It seems he matured almost during the night.'_

"No... what I wanted to talk about was the fight itself... Kakashi-sensei, I apologize If I'm rude... but until now, I never thought that you sucked." Naruto stated, staring calmly at his teacher.

Kakashi was taken aback.

"Uhm... I ... suck?" He repeated.

"Yes, sensei. We only barely made it through this mission. I know that it was supposed to be only C-rank originally and now that it reached A-rank, we, Genin, never should have taken it. Nevertheless... you never seriously trained us before, with the exception of one training after you became our sensei and the tree climbing exercise and it almost cost us our life." Naruto told him grimly and watched as Kakashi frowned.

"But what's done is done. I'm not here to yell at you or anything like that. I want to ask you if you could point me to what I could train in and I'll train by myself. Sakura is still over Sasuke so I don't want to train with her and Sasuke... I want to surprise him by getting stronger than him." Kakashi only raised one visible eyebrow and sighed.

"Naruto... you are partly right. I never trained you, but it's because I honestly thought that you would try to train by yourselves. I'm your sensei, but it doesn't mean I'll overlooking everything. You three are now a shinobi of Konoha and getting stronger should be your own responsibility... but... I should have said something... that's true. And I know that you and Sasuke are rivals, but getting stronger than Sasuke will be hard. He is quite ahead of you." He replied, rubbing his chin.

Naruto only grinned cunningly at him.

"Don't worry about that. I have something that he doesn't have. I just need some pointers."

Kakashi squinted his eye curiously.

_'Does he mean Kyuubi?... Naaah, he's too young to try and consciously use its chakra... doesn't matter, important thing is that he wants to train.'_

"All right. I can assess your strong and weak points... but for now, let's go eat. You've been out of it for two days so you should be quite hungry... I'm actually surprised you aren't jumping from hunger. After you've done with your meal, meet me in the forest, where we did the climbing exercise."

A small smile creeped on Naruto's face and he nodded enthusiastically, sprinting down the stairs to eat breakfast.

...

_Later, in the forest._

"Naruto, I'll be blunt, so try not to get offended." Kakashi started as he stared seriously at his student.

Naruto grimaced but nodded.

"I'll start with your weaknesses. Your Genjutsu is non-existent at the moment and along with your poor chakra control, you are susceptible to illusions that could easily knock you out of the game. So what you should do as first, is to improve your chakra control and at least learn how to quickly recognize and dispel Genjutsu. Next is your Taijutsu. It's a tad better than Genjutsu, but still, a high-level Genin could take you down. Try to find some style that would fit you and master it. Your kunai control is average, improve it too. Maybe you could try to find another type of weapon, but that's optional." Kakashi listed and Naruto had to keep himself from sighing. He expected something like that.

"Now, the rest. Your Ninjutsu is good, but you have quite limited arsenal. With your huge chakra reserves your are suited for using many jutsus in rapid succession, overwhelming you opponent quickly. You have also brutal stamina, which allows you to go far beyond the limits of not even Genin, but most of the Chunin too. But... even if you have amazing stamina, your body is still not trained enough. There is a way, using weights... but that's Gai's style, so you can use Gravity seals. I bet you never heard of them, but I think it's the best method. You can easily buy them back in Konoha." Kakashi frowned when Naruto suddenly had downcast expression.

"What is it?"

"Uhm... sensei... wou-would it be too much trouble if I asked you to buy them for me? I'm not... welcomed in that particular store." Naruto explained, widening Kakashi's eye with his statement.

_'So those idiots are still blaming him for Kyuubi?'_

Shaking his head, Kakashi reached into his pocket.

"Take these, I used to use them for myself, but they are too low-level for me now."

Naruto looked at him in surprise.

"You'd give them to me? Just like that?" He asked in disbelief.

"Well, to, be honest, I wanted to give them to one of you three, I was just waiting for the right moment and since nobody mentioned any training I forgot about them." Kakashi admitted embarrassed.

"Cool." Naruto exclaimed and allowed his sensei to put them on his limbs.

Forming a single seal, Kakashi activated the first level, making Naruto's eyes go even wider.

"Whoa... it feels like something heavy is pressing on each of my limb." Naruto stated and tried to move. I t was hard but after a few minutes he got used to it a little.

"This is only the first level. There are additional four of them. When you want to raise the level, just form a ram seal. If you want to release the gravity, form an ox seal. After you manage to overcome each of these five levels, your body should be roughly on high-Chunin to low-Jonin level, so don't think you can do it in a week." Kakashi lectured.

_'No kidding. It'll take me a week to get to the second level as something tells me that Clones can't be used to physical training.' _Naruto thought and sat down again.

"Last thing... I noticed that you seem different since that battle on the bridge... more mature and less rash... you could even say even smarter, but you should also work on your intelligence. How to overcome difficult situations that could occur on mission or how to create tactics against your enemies." Kakashi continued seriously and to his surprise Naruto nodded.

"Yeah, that's actually one of my priorities... but I have one question about Ninjutsu. I know that there are many types of jutsus but it seems that most of the shinobi can use only jutsus of one or few types... why?" Kakashi was surprised further.

"I never expected that you'd be the first one to ask about Elemental affinities, but it seems you're still unpredictable. So listen... as you probably know, there are five basic elements: Earth, Water, Fire, Wind and Lightning. Every next element is weaker than the previous. It means that Earth is weak against Lightning but strong against Water. Water is weak against Earth but strong against Fire and so on. Every shinobi has an affinity to at least one element, allowing him easier use of that element." He explained and almost smiled when Naruto immediately raised his hand for another question.

"Does it mean that if I have for example an affinity to a Wind, I can use only Wind justus?"

"No. It only means that you can use learn how to use them more easily. Training and hard work can allow you to use more elements, creating an artificial affinity but some elements are out of your reach and you can use them with limited strength or you even can't use them. Most of the Jonin can use two, some even three elements sufficiently."

Naruto nodded, trying to remember everything.

"So how do I know what are my affinities?" He asked in excited voice.

"Using..." Kakashi trailed off dramatically and quickly pulled out a piece of paper.

"... this!"

...

"Uhm... and what's that?" Naruto sweatdropped at him.

Sad, when he got no reaction from Naruto, Kakashi handed him the piece.

"This is a special chakra paper that reacts to the chakra you put into it. It reacts differently to every element. Try putting a bit of your chakra into it."

Still sceptical, Naruto concentrated and pushed a portion of his chakra into the paper.

Kakashi whistled when the effects showed on the paper, which cut itself into two pieces that slowly crumbled away.

"Interesting, it seems that you possess two elemental affinities, Wind being primary and Earth as secondary. Most of the Genin have only one affinity." He nodded in acknowledgement, making Naruto's mouth widen in a smile.

"Awesome."

"Not to mention that strong Wind affinity is very rare. I think that in Konoha, only Asuma has it. And with Earth in combination... well, you have good affinities. You can counter four of the elements, leaving only Fire that can catch you off guard." Kakashi eye-smiled at him.

Naruto only scratched his head in embarrassment. He wasn't used to compliments.

Looking at the sky, Kakashi nodded to himself.

"Well, we should slowly head back. Our mission is still active until Tazuna finishes the bridge."

Naruto looked around and glanced at Kakashi.

"You know what sensei? Go ahead without me. I'll be right behind you, I just want to try something."

Kakashi only raised his eyebrow and walked away, leaving Naruto alone.

_'Okay... I'm quite rested so I can create enough clones to train, while we help Tazuna-san. I now know the tree climbing but if I recall, there was that Leaf training back at the Academy that I never tried.' _He thought and formed a seal.

After the burst of smoke cleared, in front of him stood a hundred of his clones.

_'Well, I don't feel that tired... good.' _ He turned to his clones.

"So listen guys, we all want to get stronger so we'll start with chakra control. I want ... you ten to perfect the tree climbing and the rest of you will do the Leaf exercise. You all know what to do, take a leaf, put it on your forehead and try to hold it there using only chakra. Release yourselves always after an hour in pack of ten, okay?" He stated and waited for the clones to nod enthusiastically.

Feeling satisfied, Naruto turned away and hurried back.

In the trees Kakashi widened his eyes and almost wanted to laugh.

_'So that's what he meant! Brilliant! I never thought he even realized the true use of clones... and with his huge chakra reserves, this training is an excellent choice for him... seems like he was right about surprising Sasuke. Heh.'_

_..._

For the next few days, Naruto concentrated on trying to get used to the first level of gravity seals, so when they'll come back to Konoha, he'd be able to raise them on the second level. He talked very little with his teammates, but they didn't even notice, as Sakura was still fussing around Sasuke, unsuccessfully trying to get his attention and Sasuke was trying to ignore everyone, spending his time thinking about what happened in the battle on the bridge.

As soon as they returned to Tazuna's house after the fight, Kakashi told them that Naruto had his first kill when Haku allowed him to kill her.

At first, when he thought that Naruto was able to beat Haku and then kill her, his anger was slowly bubbling but after Kakashi lied a little, trying to make things easier for Naruto, and said that Haku wanted to die, Sasuke soon forgot about it.

Instead, he focused on trying to get better at activating and deactivating his newly acquired Sharingan. Even though he was arrogant and egoistic, he was still clever enough to realize that Haku beat him... and that rubbed the young Uchiha in a bad way.

So his mood worsened and he ignored everyone besides Kakashi.

Thanks to that, not him, nor even Sakura noticed that Naruto started to behave differently. He wasn't so loud anymore and he didn't have any stupid jokes at hand and he haven't even tried to get Sakura's attention.

That was another thing.

Ever since Kyuubi got rid of the seals, allowing Naruto to use his full brain capacity and actually to be smart for the first time in his life, the blonde was slowly realizing that what has been one-sided crush for so long was now almost nothing.

He interpreted it in a way that made him see that what he felt wasn't love.

It was only because he was so desperately trying to get everyone's attention, that he always trailed behind Sakura, asking her on dates and being around here in general.

She was so loud and brash every time she rejected Naruto, that many people noticed it and that was a little bit similar to what Naruto wanted.

But now, however, he knew better.

He knew that the best way of catching attention, was to get strong.

And that was precisely what he was going to do.

At the end of the week, the training with his clones paid off and he was able to handle his chakra loads better.

He could hold the leaf on his forehead for almost half an hour.

The side effect of his better control was the fact that the amount of chakra it cost him to create a hundred clones now allowed him to create almost twice as much, greatly expanding his training possibilities.

Two days before they had planned to return to Konoha, Naruto noted that he was able to move under the first level of gravity seal just as he could without them before, so he decided on raising the level.

_'So, just do a ram hand seal. Okay, here we go- uff.' _His eyes widened as he felt his legs shaking from the pressure on them. It was difficult to even jump a little, so without having any other option, he stayed in the forest for an hour, trying to get used to the pressure so that he could at least walk normally.

Just as he was about to walk back to Tazuna's house, Kakashi emerged from behind the tree.

"I see that you raised the level on Gravity seals and it took you only eight days. Very good, Naruto." He stated, giving the Genin thumbs up.

"Ka-kakashi-sensei! I haven't sensed you... ahaha, yeah. I felt like I could go to second level today but it's loads harder than the first one." Naruto replied embarrassed.

_'I think I need to praise him more often, seems like the kid is absolutely not used to it... damn you Hokage-sama and you told me that sensei's son was taken care of...'_ Kakashi thought angrily and nodded.

"That's the point of it, each level is harder than the previous, so it will gradually take you more and more time to get used to them. Just a small warning though. Every time, before you raise your level, release the seals and get used to the speed and strength you gain, otherwise, if you release them only after reaching the final level, you'll only be disoriented and won't be able to react properly. Try to release them and move around a bit." He instructed the blonde, who immediately formed the ox seal.

"Gravity seals: Release!" Naruto ushered and his mouth formed a perfect circle from surprise.

"Wow, I feel so much lighter!" He exclaimed and tried to sprint forward, reaching the tree in front of him in a matter of seconds, almost crashing into it.

With a wide grin he jumped at Kakashi, aiming a punch, which was stopped with a palm block.

"Ow." Kakashi yelped, unprepared for the strike.

_'I didn't think his arm strength would increase this much with only one level. That must mean that even before his punch must have packed quite a strength.' _He thought in surprise.

"This is amazing... but also crazy. If this is only after one level, you must be crazy strong when you want to, Kakashi-sensei." Naruto looked at his teacher with respect.

Kakashi smiled behind his mask.

"It's good to know that even if you're getting stronger you're not also becoming self-centered." He stated, making Naruto grin at him.

"Not a chance, I'm not Sasuke."

* * *

_Back at Konoha_

_'I can't believe they would name their bridge after Naruto.' _Kakashi thought, his mouth twitching in amusement since their departure from the Wave.

_'I can't believe they wouldn't name their bridge after Sasuke-kun!'_ Sakura thought, still angry about the whole thing.

_'I can't believe they would name their bridge after me.'_Naruto thought flabbergasted.

_'Hmph.' _Was everything that Sasuke thought as the four of them stood in front of the Hokage after reporting the details of the mission.

Even though Naruto was still surprised that villagers named their bridge as Great Naruto Bridge, he couldn't have protested.

Day before their departure, when Naruto was just walking around, he accidentally came across Gato's past hideout, where he found a noteworthy amount of money, quickly alerting Tazuna and villagers.

He refused when they tried to give him some of it and instead, he let them have all of it, saying

"Your country needs it more than I do.", which of course earned him cries of gratitude and eventually the name of the bridge.

In the Hokage tower, Konoha's leader pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I see, so Gato was behind the whole thing. It was dangerous from you to continue with the mission anyway, Kakashi, but nevertheless, I'm pleased that you did it. All of you will of course receive the payment for the A-rank mission as I can easily say that this was the case. Dismissed. Kakashi, stay behind, please." Sarutobi Hiruzen ordered and watched as the trio of Genin slowly disappeared.

"So, I believe there is something you wanted to tell me, besides the official report, Kakashi." He said and leaned forward on his chair.

"Yes, during the battle on the bridge, Naruto managed to tap into Kyuubi's power." Kakashi replied, earning wide eyes from the Hokage.

"How? Did he break Minato's seal?" He asked, a little bit pale.

"No, the seal is fine, his anger and grief from the potential loss of a teammate probably triggered something in the seal, allowing him to tap into the Kyuubi's chakra. I am inclined to say that it was probably sensei's plan. I don't think he would place Kyuubi into his son without giving him a chance to use it sometime." Kakashi explained.

Hokage nodded and sighed in relief.

"That's good, but I also noticed that something is different about Naruto... do you really think that his first kill would change him so drastically?" He wondered.

"I'm not sure, Hokage-sama, but whatever happened, it did him only good. He seems to think more clearly, more mature and most of all, he's determined to be the best shinobi in Konoha and frankly, I'm giving him few years and he'll do it." Kakashi said seriously, earning a curious glance from the Hokage.

"And what makes you say that? I know that he has it in his genes, but he still needs to train very hard. He seems to be little behind the rest of the Genins."

Kakashi shook his head sadly.

"It's only because he never had anyone who would train him." Seeing the doubtful expression on the Hokage's face, he continued.

"I suspect that the instructors in Academy ignored him and never taught him anything, which is the second thing I want to talk about... but later. So as I said, he was probably ignored and nobody explained to him how things work. Yet despite that, and despite his huge chakra reserves, which made his chakra control to go haywire, he managed to succeed in tree-climbing in the same time Sasuke did... and don't forget, Sasuke already had better chakra control, smaller reserves and is considered to be a prodigy."

Hokage only smiled and lighted up his pipe.

"That's good to hear, but he still has a long way to go."

Kakashi grinned at him suddenly, making Hokage wary.

"I bet you that he'll be able to win next Chunin exams, if they'll really be postponed three months."

With wide eyes, Hokage almost dropped his pipe.

"How?"

"He realized the potential of his shadow clones."

...

"Aaaah!" Hokage jumped and yelled, pointing his finger at Kakashi.

"That's how I can get rid of this damn paperwork!" He yelled, making Kakashi sweatdrop.

"Uhm... not to be rude, but I thought you'd think of that sooner, sir."

Hokage scratched his chin ashamed.

"Ah well, later is better than never... so Naruto will train using Shadow clones, eh? I see... considering his large chakra reserves... yes, I agree... by the time the Chunin exams came, he'll be a lot stronger. But don't you think you should have told him about the mental stress of overusing them?" He asked worriedly.

Kakashi only waved his hand.

"Naah, he'll be good. Kid's sturdy as hell, he'll be okay. Besides I showed him on what he should concentrate.. by the way, he has two elemental affinities."

This got Hokage's attention and he put his hat down and scratched his head.

"Really? Two? Surprising for a Genin."

"Indeed. His primary affinity is Wind and secondary Earth." Kakashi said and looked at the Hokage knowingly.

"Wind? Asuma will be pleased to know that there is someone else beside him with that." Hokage smiled sadly.

It has been a long time since his son came to visit him just like a member of a family and not as a shinobi.

"Now that this is out of the table, Hokage-sama, I'd like to talk about Naruto's childhood, why would the instructors in Academy try to sabotage his education, why does he sometimes seem like he has been through hell and why does he look like he was never praised before?" Kakashi leaned forward, an evil chakra forming around him.

_'Oh boy.'_Hokage gulped and with a small movement of his hand, he called off his Anbu guard.

He didn't want them to see the humiliation, he would get... and which he probably deserved.

* * *

_With Naruto_

Falling on his bed and listing everything that he planned to learn in the next few months, for the first time in past few years, Naruto truly smiled.

He was going to get stronger.

He was going to show everyone, just who Naruto Uzumaki is.

He was going to kick Sasuke's ass...

... and he was going to keep his promise to Haku.

End of chapter 1.


	2. Chapter 2 : How to train your shinobi

**Thank you all for your reviews, for a side story, it got quite the nice amount of attention already.**

**Responding to every review would be too much, so I'll mention some that asks something important.**

***KHARAKI_TAKAN - we already talked about this, but so that the others would know : Yes, Naruto knew about the Kyuubi ever since the Mizuki incident, however, in the canon, his first actual meeting with Kyuubi took place during his training with Jiraya, so if I made him meet Kyuubi this soon, of course he wouldn't know where he ended up. The rest of the review... we'll see :D. About the water walking - Naruto simply forgot about it and I want him to learn things in time... he'll get to water-walking. I'll explain what happened to Naruto in past sometime in the future, when it'll become relevant.**

***mugetsudude - glad you decided to read it ;). I already changed the summary, thanks for pointing that out. While writing the second chapter, I decided what pairings I'll do soo... you'll see. For now, Naruto remains my side story.**

***saltyuchiha - I always welcome criticism so I get your skepticism. However, the seal isn't as simple or convinient, I'll explain in later chapters. Naruto is behaving OOC, but I'll try to write him as how he would be in canon, if he was smart... I read too much fics, where he suddenly started to curse like an old man, behave psychotic or superior and worst of all, some fics where while being a 12 years old he starts fucking other 12 years old girls. That is disgusting.**

**Don't worry about Naruto being overpowered too soon. Just because his IQ rose from an idiot to an average person, he's not suddenly strong. He has to train and I'll give him free only small things.**

**Many thanks goes to **TheVastEmptiness **- thank you for beta ;)****  
**

**Chapter 2 – How to train your shinobi**

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

"Normal speech"

'_Inner speech/thoughts'_

**'Kyuubi/Tailed beast speech'**

**xxx**

When Naruto woke up the following morning, he sported a small smile on his face.

_'This is it. It's the beginning of the new Naruto. Today marks the day when I'm leaving the old Naruto behind... just you wait Konoha... number one unpredictable ninja will show you just what can he do.'_

The sleep in his own bed did him wonders and he was feeling rested and fresh.

Eager to explore the new possibilities.

He quickly changed into his orange jumpsuit and prepared a light breakfast for himself.

While he was eating in the kitchen, his mind was running through many things he wanted to try and learn.

However, with his new... 'ability' to think clearly, he also realized that even with his army of clones, becoming a ninja on par with Kakashi, or Hokage, was still a long and painful road.

Yes, he was in possession of a cheat in form of Kage Bunshin, but since he actually paid attention to what Kyuubi told him, he knew that he couldn't overuse the technique.

Being the forbidden jutsu, it had its drawbacks and the increased mental stress was the worst thing for Naruto right now.

Just over a week ago, his brain was working on low capacity and even if Kyuubi broke the seal, it would take some time for his brain to adapt and overloading it with information influx from his clones would be suicide.

No, he needed to heed Kyuubi's words and take things slowly.

_'I guess for now I'll focus on the things I need most.'_

Slurping the rest of the noodles, he propped his head on his hand and concentrated on the most important thing.

_'Where the hell should I train?'_

Naruto wanted to keep his new training regiment a secret from the rest of his peers... from the rest of the Konoha.

His new skills were meant to be a surprise, so training at the usual spot was out of the question.

_'What is a place that nobody goes near... that is remote enough... and has enough room for me and my clones to train...'_

A small lightbulb lit up above his head.

He punched the palm of his left hand with his right fist.

"Of course, the Forest of Death." His grin slowly faded, when he realized what he said.

Shrugging, he finished his meal and cleaned the table.

_'Well, I can't be scared if I want to become a real shinobi.'_

With that thought, he emerged from his small apartment, heading towards the abandoned forest.

* * *

_Outskirts of the Forest of death_

As he was nearing his destination, Naruto thought of one thing.

The Forest of Death could very well serve as a dangerous form of survival training, aside from practicing jutsu, as there was probably only a handful of people that would willingly go into the forest.

_'... but maybe later. Right now, it would be a stupid thing to do. I'm still barely a Genin level ninja, even if I have Kyuubi in my belly. It'd be pointlessly dangerous. Also... my clones would get dispelled too quickly, they don't possess high durability...'_

After a few more minutes, wandering through the outer part of the place, he found a small clearing just before the fence that was surrounding the Forest of Death; preventing civilians from entering it by accident.

Inspecting the place, he repeatedly nodded to himself, smiling lightly.

_'Yep, this'll do.'_

Just as he went to create his clones to start training, he heard a familiar, quiet noise and, with wide eyes, he rolled to the ground, barely dodging a kunai that flew by him.

"Who's there?!" He yelled after standing back up, holding his own kunai in defense.

_'So much for a remote place...'_

He gulped when he felt a cold steel of a kunai pressed against his neck and a voice from behind him.

"Well well well... what do we have here? A brat with deliciously smelling blood... hmm, why are you here kid? Don't you know why this place got its name... 'Forest of Death'?" A young sounding feminine voice hissed quietly into his ear.

Shivering slightly from the feel of breath on his skin, Naruto scoffed, trying to sound brave.

"Yeah... I know what this place is, I've been here before."

An amused smirk came from behind him, as the kunai slowly trailed his vein.

"Oh... do tell, why would a kid end up in here?"

Naruto clenched his fist, as a memory shot through his mind.

"What's the better place to run to when villagers are trying to kill you? It's just the right place for a 'demon', right? You can also drop that kunai, I've been threatened too much to be scared by it." He replied snidely and felt the hand with a kunai slowly drop.

"So... you're 'that' kid, huh?"

Naruto turned around to see a young kunoichi, staring at him with a small frown.

She was most likely a woman in her twenties with purple hair tied into a short, spiky, fanned-ponytail. Naruto had to avoid looking at her torso in embarrassment, as she was wearing only a mesh shirt with an overcoat on it, barely covering her developed bust and an orange mini-skirt.

Registering what she said, he tilted his head.

"That kid? So you know about the... about my ... tenant?" He asked before he could stop himself.

She snorted loudly and shook her head.

"Of course I know. Most of the Jounin and even Chunin know about 'it'."

A slightly shocking revelation forced Naruto to snort loudly.

"Pff... and it's supposed to be a secret... yeah, right." He mumbled, irritated.

"So... then you probably know my name, Uzumaki Naruto, but who are you?" He continued.

The woman grinned widely and pointed at herself.

"Me? I'm Mitarashi Anko, the sexy Torture and Interrogation kunoichi, the devilish Tokubetsu Jonin of Konoha and one of the best kunoichi of this village!" She yelled with a wink.

"..."

Naruto sweatdropped at her, forcing her to pout with crossed arms.

"Uhm... okay... Mitarashi-san... I don't mean to be rude, but I've already wasted too much time as it is so... you know. Could you leave now?" He asked with a twitching eye.

She gasped theatrically and resolutely shook her head.

"What, you don't enjoy my company? I'm hurt... but if you'll call me Mitarashi-san again, you'll be the one that's going to be hurt." Anko stated with a threatening voice, but still grinning.

_'Oh come on... she's so annoying.' _Naruto whined in his mind.

"If you want me to call you Mitarashi-sama, then forget it." He grimaced at her.

"Nah, Anko is enough."

"Anko-san then."

Sighing, she raised one eyebrow and folded her hands under her breasts, unconsciously raising them a bit.

"So, what are you doing here kid? This really isn't a place for a Genin... and I assume you are a Genin with that forehead protector you're wearing."

Contemplating about revealing his intentions to train here, Naruto went silent for a moment.

However, finding nothing bad about it, he shrugged.

"Yeah, I'm a Genin and I came here because I was looking for a nice, remote place to train myself. Before you ask, no, I don't want to train with the rest of my team, as we barely trained at all until now."

Anko raised her second eyebrow.

"You're telling me that your Jonin-sensei hasn't taught you anything? He hasn't trained you? Who's your sensei?" She asked in disbelief.

"Well, he taught us tree-walking. His name is Hatake Kakashi." Naruto retorted and watched in confusion when the kunoichi in front of him started to laugh.

She quickly raised her hand and wiped a small tear from the corner of her eye.

"Oh, sorry about that... but... damn, you got some bad luck. Getting Kakashi... no wonder you want to train..."

Waiting for her laughing fit to end, Naruto kicked the dirt in irritation.

_'Giving me those gravity seals and some advice just saved you from me agreeing with her, Kakashi-sensei...'_

"Okay, I get it kid... you know what? Since I know Kakashi's reputation, I'll give you a bit of free advice... if you want." Anko offered him after finally calming down.

_'If what I hear is true, the kid needs a little help... ah, I already see him doubting me... thanks to those morons in the village, he must have been ostracized for a long time... yeah, I know how that feels kid...'_ She thought grimly, but outwardly, she kept a happy expression.

Naruto squinted his eyes.

Not counting Hokage, Iruka and Kakashi, nobody had ever given him advice before. Not to mention voluntarily.

That's why he was suspicious.

Anko let him stare at her, still grinning at him.

_'Well, she is a Jonin, maybe she can actually help... aw, what the hell, I have nothing to lose here.'_ Naruto thought about it and, after a moment, he nodded.

Anko's smile widened further.

"Good for you, kid."

With that, she started to circle him, analyzing every detail on his attire, nodding to herself.

It took Naruto by surprise, as he was baffled by her actions.

"Uhm, what are you doing?" He asked, confused.

Whistling quietly, she nodded once again.

"I'm observing. If you're willing to train here, with Forest of Death behind your ass, it means that you're at least serious with your training and that's a good thing. However, if you want to be also taken seriously, you need to change your clothes. Orange is like screaming at your enemies at the top of your lungs 'come and kill me'. It does have a nice amount of pockets and looks comfortable, but a respectable ninja should wear something different." Anko explained.

Naruto pointed at her and asked with a small hint of amusement in his voice.

"And your clothes are good for a shinobi?"

With a small chuckle, Anko raised her finger and wagged it at him.

"For a shinobi? Definitely not. For a kunoichi? Absolutely."

"Eh?"

Seeing his confusion, Anko spun around, revealing the lightly transparent mesh shirt and forcing Naruto to look elsewhere.

"This is the answer." Anko stated.

"Uhm... your clothes are good for a kunoichi, because your boobs are showing?" Naruto blurted out without thinking and then blushed after realizing what he said.

It only widened Anko's grin.

"Close enough, kid. What did you do when I spun myself? You averted your gaze, which is by the way cute of you, but if you were my enemy and you'd done the same, you'd already be dead."

"So... a diversion?" Naruto asked, looking at the ground with pink cheeks.

"Yes, partly. However, something like this can't affect more skilled shinobi. But these clothes, or even showing my body... it's good for seduction and that sometimes comes in handy, when your mission requires for you to get close to your target. " Anko replied honestly.

That answer left Naruto with bad taste in his mouth when he realized that in the future, his female peers, like Sakura or Ino, who was Sakura's best friend, would maybe need to seduce their targets.

Anko noticed his disgusted grimace and waved her hand.

"Don't think about it, kid. When you'll be older, you'll be able to think about it more clearly... but right now, time for my advice. Get rid of your orange clothes and get the following... " She trailed off when an amused smirk played on her lips.

"... get yourself a standard Konoha-nin uniform, meaning dark blue or black pants and a mesh shirt with a suit in corresponding colors, flak jacket on top of it and blue or black sandals. Can you afford it?" She continued and, after listing all of the items, she looked expectantly at Naruto, who was deep in thought.

_'Can I afford it?... yeah, just tell the store-owners to offer me the same price they offer the rest of the Konoha shinobi and I'm good. They are as mean as the instructors in Academy. If only I could send someone else to do... the... shopping...wait... Academy, someone else...'_ A foxy grin appeared on his face.

_'That's it! I can use Henge for any kind of shopping! Now that my chakra control is better, I'm confident I can hold it until I'm done with the shopping... heh.'_

He looked up at Anko, who was still watching him and gave her a thumbs up.

"Yeah, I think I'll manage. Thanks, Anko-san."

"Yeah yeah, no biggie." She exclaimed, rubbing her head in embarrassment.

Being the former student of Orochimaru, one of the three legendary Sanin that betrayed his village, Anko wasn't used to being thanked just as Naruto wasn't used to getting free advice.

Winking at the Genin, she flared her chakra and disappeared in a Shunshin.

Naruto blinked at the sudden smoke in front of him and whistled quietly.

"Damn, I need to learn that too."

After walking to the centre of the clearing, he molded the needed chakra for his signature jutsu.

"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu." He said and, with a popping sound, a hundred Naruto clones appeared, filling his new training area.

Naruto turned to his clones that were calmly awaiting his orders and called out to them.

"Okay guys, here's how it's going to go. I need to go buy new clothes and, after that, our team will probably go do some D-rank mission. In the meantime, you will do the following."

Pointing to ten closest clones, he nodded to them.

"You ten will Henge into some random Konoha shinobi, create your own design, it doesn't matter how it'll look but it should be plain so that you would be forgettable. I want you to go to the Konoha Library, where you'll split up. I have two elemental affinities, Wind and Earth, so I want you to find some low-rank jutsu for each of the element. Since my biggest asset is large chakra reserves, why shouldn't I use it to my advantage? If I have numerous jutsu in my repertoire, I can simply overwhelm my opponents with the amount of jutsu I'll spit on them. When you're sure you've read enough about the jutsu and you've memorized the hand seals, dispel so that the rest of the clones can try to learn them. That would be a job for three clones. The other seven... find some useful books on chakra control, elemental control, military strategy... whatever catches your eyes... and find out how to do the damn Shunshin... it's way too cool for me to not learn it. Read until you can hold the Henge and after that, dispel quietly. Go!" He watched as the ten chosen clones nodded and ran to the village.

Originally, he wanted them to Henge into civilians, but, after thinking about it for a moment, he changed his mind. Shinobi had more privileges in this village than any civilian and they would be allowed into more sections of the library.

Not to mention that the librarian that worked there never bothered Konoha shinobi and as soon as he saw the forehead protector, he let them pass without asking unneccessary questions.

It meant that Konoha's Library had a poor security, which could end badly but right now, it played in Naruto's cards perfectly.

Glancing at the rest of his army of clones, he rubbed his chin.

"The rest of you... until you have the memories of those three clones, practice kunai throwing as our aim is only slightly above average so no marooning... Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, intelligence, strength, speed, stamina and the speed of forming the hand seals. All of it must get refined. Without the Kyuubi's chakra, we are only a Genin... and a weak one at that. I'm no fool and I'm sure that Sasuke could beat our ass. That will change." He trailed off and cracked his neck joints.

He pointed at the large group of clones.

"...thirty-nine, forty. Okay, you forty will focus on the jutsu from the clones which would take care of the Ninjutsu part." Naruto stated and motioned them to separate from the others.

"Thirty of you will spar in Taijutsu until I can find some particular style of fighting. I know that I can't use clones for physical training but reaction time is more of mind strength than the physical one... "

He watched as another group separated itself and he adopted a thinking pose.

"Hmm... that leaves twenty clones. I don't think I will be able to learn some high-level Genjutsu... like ever... at least not with my chakra reserves but the better chakra control, the better chance I may be able to do some low-level ones, or be able to dispel them. That's why, ten of you will concentrate on chakra control to try and improve it."

"What about us?" A clone from the last group, consisting of ten clones, asked loudly.

Chewing on his lip, Naruto squinted his eyes.

"I can work on intelligence mostly only by reading stuff in the library or by getting experiences in the field... on missions. Strength, speed and stamina... those three will get better with me wearing this gravity seals while I'm doing virtually any movements and only I, the original, can improve them. The only thing that is left, is the speed of forming the hand seals... and maybe throwing kunai... hmm... well, five of you go over any hand seal to try and speed up their forming and the other five, practice throwing kunai until you run out of the chakra."

The group of clones nodded and five of them immediately sat down, closed their eyes and were slowly going over the hand seals.

Just before he exited the area, Naruto stopped in his tracks and quickly turned around.

"Oh yeah and don't forget one thing. When some of you'll run out of chakra, always dispel only in groups of ten, never more. I don't need a splitting headache." And with that, he was on his way to the village.

* * *

_Konoha_

Emerging from a small clothes shop was a short kid with short brown hair and a grin that went from his left ear to the one on his right.

In his hands were two bags full of new clothes. Jacket, suit, flak jacket, pants, sandals, shirts, mesh shirt and more were safely tucked in.

As he got to the corner of the shop, spotting a dark alley, the boy looked around and, seeing nobody suspicious, he quickly jumped in.

When he was sure he was completely hidden, the boy was suddenly surrounded in a small cloud of smoke that after a moment revealed a chuckling Naruto in his orange jumpsuit.

_'Aw yeah, Mission: Clothes shopping with fair prices – successful!'_

He carefully dropped the bags and took out the clothes Anko told him to buy. With a wide smile, nodding appreciatively, he changed into them.

_'Hm, for shinobi attire, this is actually quite comfortable.'_

As per Anko's advice, Naruto bought standard Konoha-nin uniforms, the only thing that forced him to stay longer in the shop was the choosing between the colors. Since he couldn't decide, he bought a black set and a dark blue set, choosing the latter to wear right now. His flak jacket was however, a different design than the one Kakashi wore since the shop clerk told him that shinobi in Konoha usually got their flak jackets after becoming a Chunin. That's why the one he currently wore was so different.

Taking the bags into his hands, he turned to leave, when he remembered the orange jumpsuit lying on the ground behind him.

He frowned when he set his sight on it.

_'I can't take it back to my apartment... they are the clothes the old Naruto wore.'_

Slightly grimacing, he picked the jumpsuit and walked to the nearby trashbin to throw it away.

However, his hand trembled a little just before he dropped it in.

_'This is the first thing the old man gave me after I entered the academy...' _ He angrily wiped the small tear in his eye.

_'Pathetic... I call myself a shinobi and I cry at this? It's just clothes... '_

Clenching his jaw, after he threw the jumpsuit away, he turned around, grabbed the bags and resolutely hurried to his apartment.

After he placed the clothes into the drawer, Naruto checked the clock and cursed.

"Damn it, I should have been at the training grounds already."

Just as he was reaching to the door-knob, he glanced at the mirror he was passing by and froze.

It was his first time seeing himself in his new clothes.

Another time, his first reaction would probably be that he looked damn good.

However, in that moment, his legs buckled under him and he fell on his butt.

_'I... I know someone who looks just like this... it's the man on the picture the old man keeps in his office... the Fourth Hokage!'_

He wanted to smile that he looked just like his idol, when a myriad of thoughts, connections that tied up the loose ends in his head, links between the information in his brain ran through his mind like a most destructive jutsu, completely eradicating his beliefs.

_'Am I... am I the son of the Fourth Hokage?'_

Widening his eyes at the ridiculousness of that thought alone, he tried to reboot his poor brain.

_'... but it would make sense when I think about it. I already know that the Kyuubi was sealed in me on the day I was born, when Kyuubi attacked the Fourth Hokage died doing it, which would explain why I never had a father, or even why I never heard anyone mentioning him... but what about my mum?'_

A cruel thought crept on his mind.

_'Did she... leave me after the Kyuubi was sealed into me?... Did she view me just like the rest of the Konoha does? Like a demon?'_

He shook his head violently.

_'No... I refuse to believe it... the only other explanation would be that she died along with the Fourth... but I never heard that he had a wife... damn...'_

He punched the floor.

_'... but if he was my dad, why would he seal the Kyuubi in me? In his own son?'_

With an angry snarl, he tried to pull out every bit of knowledge in his brain he had on the Fourth Hokage.

_'Think... think! What was said about him... yeah, I remember. He was hailed as a genius, a prodigy of his generation, the term that is by the way handed out too loosely these days, a shinobi like nobody else. He was strong, fast, intelligent but for his whole life he stayed as he was when he was a kid. He stayed kind, gentle and thoughtful, always treating the rest of his peers and his friends without looking down on them. The whole village loved him, his shinobi respected him, kids adored him and he cared about them too. It's one of the reasons he became my idol in the first place. He was still a human being... having no cruelty in him, aside maybe from the battlefield... if I try really, really hard to think about it... I can't see him just use the first orphan he could lay his hands on for sealing the Kyuubi. He wouldn't put a stranger, not to mention a child, through something that cruel if he didn't have some other motive for it... is it possible that he thought that the village would do something he thought was only logical?... that the village would view me as a simple jailer, holding his demon prisoner at bay?... that they would view me as somebody that actually protected them from Kyuubi?'_

Gritting his teeth, he allowed a tear to drop on his hand.

_'But even knowing this... knowing that his actions saved Konoha from utter destruction... I can't bring myself to forgive him for it... I was able not to think about it since Mizuki told me about me that day when I stole the Forbidden Scroll... but if he really is... if the Fourth Hokage really is my dad... it only hurts more. If it's true and I'd meet him in this moment... I don't think I 'd be able to forgive him...'_

He wiped the tear and lay down, trying not to think about anything for a moment. Trying to empty his mind.

_'Haaaah... there is too much that I don't know or that I'm not sure about. But I think I can be sure of one thing. It doesn't matter if the Fourth was my dad or not, he was a genius... a person that never did anything without a plan. That tells me one thing.'_

Suddenly forcing himself to stand up, Naruto squeezed his fists.

_'It tells me, that the Fourth Hokage sealed the Kyuubi in me, thinking that one day, I'd be able to harvest its power for good. In case I'm right about him being my father, I still don't know why the old man never said anything about him or what the location of my Mum is or if she's even still alive... I'll try to find out about this on my own until Hokage-jiji decides to tell me. But until then... I have a promise to fulfill.'_

Something clicked in his mind.

_'Huh, now that I think about it... why would Hokage-jiji take care of me if I was some random orphan kid? Yes, he is a kind old man, but it would make more sense if it was because of who was my Dad, his successor. On the other hand, maybe he did it because I'm holding the Kyuubi in me... ah... enough of this.'_

Breathing steadily, trying to calm his emotions down, he emerged from his apartment and headed to the training ground reserved for Team 7.

He was still deeply focusing on his breathing, so he didn't even notice that his surroundings changed and that he arrived at the training grounds. So the thing that actually woke him up from his musings was a loud yell.

"You're late, stupid Naruto! We've been here with Sasuke-kun for almost half an hour!"

Naruto cringed at the high volume of the voice and rubbed his ears.

"Calm down, Sakura! Sheesh, do you want me to lose my hearing?"

Before Sakura could retort in angry snarl, Sasuke interrupted her with a bored question.

"What's with the clothes, dobe? You're finally trying to look like a shinobi?"

After he mentioned it, Sakura actually tried to get a look at Naruto with raised eyebrows. Surprising Sasuke with his calm demeanor, Naruto turned to him with a small smirk.

"You said it, tomoe-eyes."

Sasuke unusually widened his eyes a bit and with a small smirk of his own, he nodded appraisingly.

"About time, hmph." He grunted with no malice in his voice.

Naruto shrugged lightheartedly and walked to the nearest tree, slumping down while humming a quiet melody.

Sakura was looking between the two boys with horror on her face.

_'No way! Did stupid Naruto just get acknowledged by Sasuke-kun? But they hate each other!' _ She thought with wide eyes.

_**'He's trying to get friendly with Sasuke-kun! We have to do it before him, cha!'**_ Her inner-self declared resolutely.

So with that Sakura spent the next half hour trying to get Sasuke's attention...

... and failing miserably.

Naruto glanced a few times at the duo, thinking lightly.

_'Wow... now that my head is clear, I can in fact see the frustration in Sasuke's eyes. He's not angry at Sakura nor is he irritated by her gibberish... he completely tuned her out and he doesn't hear even a word of what she's saying. It seems that what he said is true and his only goal really is just getting stronger so that he could kill that person... he's still a jerk, but a jerk with a strong resolve.'_

Sitting next to Sakura, Sasuke was surprisingly thinking something similar.

_'Well, it looks like the dobe is trying to be a proper shinobi. He's calmer, more level-headed than before... but that won't be enough. Hmph, if he'll show some actual improvement he may stop holding me back.'_

He glanced at the girl next to him, animatedly talking about some nonsense and sighed without her noticing.

_'If only this idiot would get it through her big forehead... she was almost useless on our mission in Wave country.'_

In that moment, Naruto slightly jerked.

The three clones from the library dispelled themselves, sending their memories to the rest of the clones and to the original.

_'Hm, so what do we got... I see, Wind release: Great Breakthrough Jutsu and Wind release: Gale Palm Jutsu, both C-ranked offensive techniques. Interesting. Though only C-ranked, these jutsu's strength can increase by applying more chakra. Useful, very useful and since I'm still a Genin, even a C-rank would be quite impressive for a starter... what next? Ah, two more for Earth release: Double Suicide Decapitation Jutsu and Earth Shore Return Jutsu. First one a supplementary technique while the second is defensive... makes sense. I can use Wind element for attack and Earth element to defend... it's logical. Both are... no, the Decapitation Jutsu is D-rank... oh, I remember that one, Kakashi pulled it off on Sasuke during our bell test. Earth Shore Jutsu is C-rank and... whoa, what the hell?'_

His eyes showed surprise when he came across the next memory from the clones.

_'Fire release: Great Fireball Jutsu, a C-rank technique... why would the clone read about this. I don't have a Fire affinity... I mean, Kakashi-sensei said that it isn't impossible to learn jutsu of the elemental affinity you don't possess, but it's still tiresome...'_

Suddenly, a small chuckle escaped his mouth, fortunately, the rest of the team couldn't hear it.

_'... oh, I get it. This jutsu is commonly used by members of the Uchiha clan, who used this jutsu as a coming of age rite... hehe, if I can actually learn this, I bet my new pants that Sasuke will explode.'_

As he thought more about it, his chuckles became full-blown laughter, finally getting Sakura's attention. She stopped her babbling and turned to Naruto, looking at him as if he was crazy.

_'What's up with that idiot, laughing his ass off like an asylum patient...'_

A moment before Kakashi finally appeared, one thought went through her mind while looking at Naruto.

_'... now that I think about it, the stupid Naruto called me Sakura and not Sakura-chan...'_

"Yo!" Kakashi greeted them jovially.

Forgetting about Naruto, Sakura snapped and yelled again.

"You're late, Kakashi-sensei!"

The Jonin waved his hands exaggeratedly.

"Mah, mah, no need to yell, I just stumbled across an old lady that needed my help to carry her groceries and when I finished that, a black cat crossed my path so I had to take an alternate route..." He was rambling until Sakura yelled at him again.

"While I do appreciate a good excuse, being a main Konoha prankster, Kakashi-sensei, we could have already been done with the mission." Naruto called out to him while slowly getting up.

"Ah, now that's where you're being mistaken as our next mission will take lon... ger..." Kakashi trailed off when he noticed Naruto's new look and his only visible eye widened.

"...sensei...?" He whispered ,barely audibly for anyone to hear, unfortunately, Naruto caught it and clenched his jaw.

_'Sensei? ...so he was a student of the Fourth Hokage? It must be... there wasn't anyone that looked like me in this village when Kakashi-sensei was still a Genin... so, I have a new piece of the puzzle...'_ He thought.

"Are you alright, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked the Jonin instructor tentatively.

Hastily shaking his head, Kakashi broke out of his surprise and eye-smiled at Sakura.

"Yeah, sure, nice outfit Naruto. So, about this mission. We are going to help a farmer at the edge of the village with..." He explained the details of the mission to the Genin, however, his thoughts were elsewhere.

_'I don't know who told him to buy this particular set of clothes, but he's now almost a splitting image of Minato-sensei. If the rest of the Konoha shinobi see him, most of them will probably instantly realize who he is... and I'm not sure that it's that of a great idea.' _Kakashi thought with a hint of uneasiness in his stomach.

Everyone missed Sasuke's raised eyebrow.

_'Sensei? What did he mean by that?'_

* * *

_In the evening_

Naruto was jumping across the village in the direction of where his new place for training was, grumbling all the way.

Kakashi took a D-rank mission for them that consisted of helping a simple farmer with plowing his soil, harvesting the planted vegetables and more manual labour, which left the whole team quite tired. Even Naruto himself felt the fatigue. On top of it, Kakashi prohibited him from using his Shadow Clones to help them with the mission.

It was as if the man knew that Naruto already had some clones training elsewhere and didn't want to overwork the Genin.

In the end, Naruto almost had to thank him, as when his clones that were training dispelled, he felt even more tired.

Never before had he felt it when he used his Shadow Clones in a fight.

_'I guess that until now, my clones got dispelled in fights too quickly so they couldn't have gathered any kind of experience... which is the root of my exhaustion. I still have enough chakra, it's my mind that's tired.'_

Arriving at his new, remote training place, he sported a big grin.

_'But I'm very much interested in how much progress my clones made... huh, so that's where that clone's jutsu exploded, looks nasty.'_

His eyes scanned the small devastated area at the edge of the clearing where one of his clones got dispelled after failing to execute one of the jutsu, resulting in a small explosion.

Shuddering at the thought of having the jutsu blasting in his face, he exhaled deeply and ran over the hand seals for the first jutsu in his head.

_'Tiger, ox, dog, rabbit, snake... '_

After forming every hand seal, he raised his hands with palms directed at the trees and exclaimed.

"Wind release: Great Breakthrough!"

"... eh?" He sweatdropped when instead of a huge gust of wind that should have blown off every leaf on the tree in front of him, a light breeze emerged from his hands, barely shaking the tree branches.

_'Ah crap. I should have known that it would be too much to know how to do a C-rank jutsu perfectly just after a day, even with my Shadow Clones... it just stresses how much work I have ahead of me... and just how poor my chakra control still is.'_

He glanced at the palms of his hands and grimaced.

_'One more try with more chakra.' _He thought stubbornly and formed the necessary hand seals.

"Wind release: Great Breakthrough!"

When the tree branches bended themselves against the sudden gust of wind, Naruto tiredly smiled and nodded.

"That's better. On to the next one."

_'Okay, pump my chakra and clap my hands, then release the pressure in them forward...'_

"Wind release: Gale Palm!" A weak gale flew from Naruto's position, forcing the leaves on the tree to flutter.

Scratching his head, the Genin was thinking furiously.

_'I see... great breakthrough is to blow the enemies away, creating an opening to strike them, while gale palm seems to be more isolated... like it's meant only to be used against one opponent. It consumes a lot less chakra than the first jutsu so it's safe to say that it should serve more as a supplementary jutsu. But what should it supplement?'_

He accidentally brushed a kunai in his pouch with his left hand, making him suddenly slap his forehead.

"Of course, it's so obvious... damn I'm dumb." Naruto sighed as he pulled out a few of his kunai.

Aiming at the more distant tree, he threw his kunai and immediately after that, he clapped his hands and shouted, pumping more chakra into his arms.

"Wind release: Gale Palm!"

He smirked victoriously when the slightly stronger force of his jutsu increased the speed at which his kunai flew, forcing them to plunge a little deeper into the wood.

_'Good, that's all for this jutsu. So, the remaining ones are earth jutsu and one fire jutsu...' _ He wiped the sweat from his brow and concentrated on the next technique.

Striking the ground with his hands full of chakra, Naruto looked up, awaiting a large wall of earth in front of him...

... only to see a thin, barely holding barrier, that would most likely shatter if he so much as sneezed at it.

More sweat appeared on his brow and he gulped.

_'This will be tough.'_

_An hour later_

Naruto was laying on the ground, heavily panting from over-exerting himself while trying to correctly execute his new jutsu.

It took him a lot of attempts and a lot of chakra to at least form a wall that could hold against a light gust of wind without crumbling down. He succeeded and, to his joy, managed to perform Earth release: Double Suicide Decapitation jutsu quite nicely on his third try. His fingers still hurt a little when doing the jutsu, meaning that his execution of the technique wasn't nearly perfect but still... it was already usable.

The fact that it was a D-rank jutsu didn't break Naruto's excitement.

The fact that he completely failed at his attempts to perform Fire release: Great Fireball jutsu however, did.

Even after trying it over and over and after spending so much chakra that even somebody as sturdy as Naruto Uzumaki got exhausted, he only managed to create a smoking cloud in front of him that he almost choked on.

So there he was, sprawled on the ground, trying to catch his breath.

There was only one thing on his mind.

_'Damn I'm beat. Gravity seals, Shadow Clones training, doing missions at the same time... I think I can endure it for about a week before my head explodes... and it'll be a long, painful week.'_

* * *

_Three days later_

The next few days flew by in high speed that Naruto spent in the same routine.

Get to his training place, create a hundred Shadow Clones, send ten of them in a Henge to the library to snuff out some new information, knowledge he didn't have before, and leave the rest of them to train. He, the original, then did a obligatory mission with his team and, in the evening, after reporting in, tried to perform the jutsu, to see how much he improved.

To his frustration, the progress was slow even with the help of his clones, which was greatly undermining his confidence.

If he was doing so bad with his Shadow Clones, how bad would he be without them?

His anger got the best of him and, yesterday morning, Naruto decided that it was time to kick it up a notch and created two hundred clones, thinking that the difference would show itself.

It did.

By creating the most painful headache he'd ever had until that evening after his clones finally dispelled.

When the clones started to dispel in groups, it was going smoothly. But after the last one puffed out of the existence, the joint experiences overloaded his recovering brain and made even the Kyuubi yell at Naruto, after he dived into his mindscape.

The fox itself felt the effects of Naruo's headache and they manifested in his mind as catastrophic weather that was sending bolts of lightning at the Kyuubi, greatly infuriating it.

When Naruto, with an amused expression after seeing Kyuubi's fur, fluffy from the electricity, said that he couldn't understand why his headache manifested as a storm, the Nine-tailed fox roared at him and threatened to never help him again.

While Naruto was already smarter then before, he wasn't arrogant to think that Kyuubi's rare help wouldn't help him to get stronger.

So he, begrudgingly, promised never to use more than one hundred Shadow Clones for his training, or until the Fox deemed it safe for his brain.

That's why, this morning, Naruto woke up slightly tired, the effects of the previous day still showing.

His only luck was that today his team wasn't going on any missions as Kakashi was busy with something for the Hokage.

Deciding that he would postpone the start of his training until he was feeling better that day, Naruto ate his breakfast and was now sprawled across his bed, thinking.

_'Why do I suck so much at my new jutsu? Earth element is my second affinity and I can do earth jutsu already better than wind ones. But Wind is my main affinity... what am I doing wrong? If only I could ask Hokage-jiji...'_

Naruto's eyes shot wide and he hastily got up.

_'Right! Kakashi mentioned that there is one person in this village that has a Wind affinity too, Asuma-san. I heard old man talking about him, it's his son and Konohamaru's uncle and he's Shikamaru's Jonin sensei... maybe he could give me some pointers? There's no point in refusing to find a help when I clearly need one...'_

With a hopeful smile, Naruto sprinted out of his apartment, heading towards Shikamaru's favourite cloud-watching spot, hoping that the lazy Nara would be there with his sensei.

* * *

_With Shikamaru_

_'Aw man, those clouds are so lucky. They only have to float... from one place... to another. If only I could do it... but nooo, we have to train... what a drag...'_

The Nara offspring sighed heavily and bit on the small stalk of grass he held in his mouth. Ever since Asuma Sarutobi picked up his team and became its Jonin instructor, Shikamaru was forced, more often then he liked, to participate in shinobi training.

While he knew that with shinobi work came responsibilities and many dangers that could potentially kill him, for now, he was content with being a lowly Genin and doing a D, at most a C-ranked missions, which held only minimal risk.

"Oi, Shikamaru, don't you want to play another round of Shogi?" Asuma called out to the Genin.

Shikamaru sighed again.

_'Maaan, since he gave me that IQ test he's so content on playing the Shogi with me that I have no time to just watch the clouds.'_

A shadow that suddenly hovered above him, made Shikamaru open his eyes in curiosity. He came face to face with Naruto, who was grinning at him and raised an eyebrow.

"Yo, Shikamaru, what's up?" Naruto greeted him.

_'Oh, it's Naruto... troublesome.'_

With a minimal movement, a lazy genius nodded to him, acknowledging his presence.

"Hey Naruto. What are you doing here. I thought you were supposed to be on a mission."

Naruto shook his head.

"Nah, we have a free day... and I actually came to talk with your sensei, Asuma-san."

This got Shikamaru's attention and the Genin slowly sat and stared at his former classmate.

"Why?"

Shooting a big grin at him, Naruto raised his finger.

"That's a secret." Shikamaru only sighed and didn't pursuit the question further.

He closed his eyes again, but when Naruto's shadow didn't move for a moment, he blinked and noticed that the blonde was looking at him with some sort of silent question in his eyes.

"What?"

Naruto pointed behind him, where Asuma was talking to the rest of his team, Choji and Ino.

"You realize that I never met your sensei so could you introduce me to him?"

With a sigh, Shikamaru lazily got up, mumbling "troublesome" all the while.

When they walked over to the group, Shikamaru called out to his instructor.

"Asuma-san, this troublesome blonde wants to talk to you. His name is Uz-"

"Uzumaki Naruto, I know." Asuma interrupted his student after a quick glance at Shikamaru's friend.

Both of them raised their eyebrows in silent question. Asuma only waved his hand.

"Kakashi often talks about you, Naruto. It's actually very surprising coming from him. He rarely has students he really likes."

_'Kakashi-sensei talks about me?'_ Naruto thought in surprise.

"Nice clothes by the way, they suit you better than your old ones." Asuma continued and lit his cigarette with a small frown.

_'I guess this answers the question of why Kakashi likes him. He really looks like the Yondaime... I'm surprised that more people haven't connected the dots already. I'm sure that I would have guessed it even without dad telling it to me.'_ He thought and sucked on his cigarette.

"Hey, Naruto, how's it going? Want some snack?" Choji greeted the former knucklehead warmly, but before the latter could answer, Ino interrupted them.

"Why is stupid Naruto here?" She snapped.

Before he could defend himself, Ino's eyes widened and she almost grabbed his shoulders.

"You left Forehead with Sasuke-kun?!" Ino yelled, a pure horror in her eyes.

"I'm sure he has a reason... so, you wanted to talk to me?" Asume quickly shot Ino a warning stare that forced her to sit back down, although with a huge frown.

Finally having a room to talk, Naruto dismissed Ino's ranting even though it hurt him to hear that some of his old classmates still clearly hated him.

"Yes, I wanted to talk to you but ... uhm, could we talk in private? It's kind of a secret." Naruto asked and shot an apologizing glance at Choji, who only chuckled.

Asuma, on the other hand, curiously raised his eyebrow. Seeing Naruto pointing his eyes at the near tree, he sighed and followed the Genin.

"So?" He leaned on the tree and exhaled a cloud of smoke to his right.

A surprise awaited him when Naruto switched from his previously cheery attitude to a serious look.

"I heard from Kakashi-sensei that you're the only one beside me, who has a Wind affinity in Konoha." Naruto stated calmly.

Asuma stopped his hand from moving after hearing this and he raised his eyebrow.

"That's true. Along with Fire, I possess a Wind affinity... but I didn't know that you do too. I'm also a bit surprised that a Genin is interested in elemental manipulation. You have to forgive me for saying this, but your Academy record would never suggest that of all the new Genin, you'd be the first to ask this kind of question. Did Kakashi tell you anything about it?" He replied seriously.

Naruto shook his head.

"It's alright, I realize that I did poorly in Academy, that's why I want to improve myself... but secretly, that is the reason I wanted to talk to you privately. Kakashi-sensei only explained the basic attributes of each of the element and told me that you have a Wind affinty, same as me, while Hokage-jiji has an Earth affinity like me."

Asuma raised his second eyebrow.

"You have two elemental affinities? Heh... now that's interesting, a dead last with two strong affinities, what are the odds... so, you want to know something about the Wind element?"

"Well, kind of. A few days ago, I started to teach myself a few jutsu and while I progress nicely with the Earth jutsu, I just can't seem to grasp the Wind ones. My Wind Release: Great Breakthrough and Gale Palm are not strong enough and even though I can create quite a strong blast of wind, it's harmless... so I thought that there must be something I'm doing wrong." Naruto grunted irritatedly.

_'He's trying to learn two Wind jutsu AND Earth jutsu at the same time? This kid must be sturdy as hell. And to think that he can already perform them... the only thing that's missing is the key element, but from what I hear, his jutsu are already usable... not bad. I think that I can give him one bit of advice.'_ Asuma nodded appreciatively.

He suddenly reached to his pouch and took out two knuckle-knives, holding them for Naruto to see them clearly.

"These are my chakra-knives. They are made of a special metal that absorbs the chakra nature of the holder. Try holding it and flow your chakra into the knife like this." The knife in his right hand suddenly glowed in blue, a sharp looking aura surrounding the knife.

He handed the other knife to Naruto, who concentrated for a moment and after a few seconds, his knife was glowing too, although the aura was more bubbly.

"Hmmm... it's different from the way your chakra looked, Asuma-san."

Asume grinned and raised his hand with a knife.

"Listen up. When manipulating the Wind type chakra, you've got to imagine splitting your chakra into two and grinding them together. Do it so that the chakra fields sharpen one another into fine pieces." He explained slowly and watched Naruto frown.

"Sharpen them into fine pieces, huh..." The blonde trailed off, already picturing the image in his mind.

"Exactly, the thinner and sharper, the better."

Naruto glanced down at his glowing knife, an idea coming to his mind.

"Hmm... from the way your chakra looks, I guess it's supposed to make these knives even sharper, right?"

_'Good, he understood... but maybe a demonstration would be even better.'_ Asume thought.

"Yes. When two weapons clash, the one with the sharper blade wins...hmm, this should explain things faster. Keep the chakra in your knife and we'll both throw these chakra-knives at that tree together." Asuma proposed and pointed his finger on Naruto's left side, at the tree with a boulder behind it.

"Okay." Naruto nodded and quickly followed Asuma's example, both of them throwing their knives at the tree.

Naruto widened his eyes when he watched the knife that Asuma threw easily cut through the tree and sink deeply into the boulder behind it.

"W-wow... amazing. So that's what the Wind chakra can do?"

_'It didn't jut cut through the tree... the knife pierced the hard rock behind it too... and that much...' _ His eyes widened further after Asuma's next sentence.

"Well, it can get dangerous, so I limited my chakra use but if I tried, that knife would cut through that rock as well."

"What?"

"Yeah... the Wind element has the strongest offensive power for close and middle-ranged fights. It's actually quite rare, you know... this Wind type..." Asuma stated with a smile.

"Can't argue with that..." Naruto said, glancing at the pierced rock again.

He turned to Asuma and lightly bowed to him.

"Thank you Asuma-san, I can already picture what I could do with the proper use of Wind element. What do you want in return for this advice?"

Asuma stared at him for a moment, the smoke steadily rising from his cigarette.

"You owe me nothing. As you are first Genin to ask this, I'm doing it for free... but next time you want advice, you'll have to pay for the Yakiniku."

_'Huh... more free advice? I seem to be getting a lot of that these days. I'm almost suspicious, but I guess that even I can have some luck after the past twelve years of misfortune.' _Naruto's mouth bent itself into a smile and he thanked Asuma, who watched him leave with a smile.

After getting back to his team, Shikamaru called out to him.

"What did Naruto want? I saw you throw something..."

The Jonin smirked at him.

"Well, if you weren't so lazy, I would tell you."

_'... so you say, Asuma-sensei, but I'm sure that those were your chakra-knives, that must mean you talked about chakra natures. But Naruto can't be working on elemental manipulation, can he?... ah, troublesome, the blondie made me think...' _Shikamaru thought with a sigh.

* * *

_With Naruto_

Feeling better after eating ramen at the Ichiraku stand, Naruto decided to head to his training place to start his daily routine.

After arriving, he created once again a hundred clones and, after giving them the usual orders, he was on his leave when a leaf landed on his forehead.

He grabbed it and looked at it speculatively.

Paying no actual attention to the leaf, instead thinking about what Asuma told him that day, he accidentally tore the leaf.

He glanced at it in surprise and his face lit up, an idea hitting him from seeing the two pieces of the leaf.

_'That's right... Asuma-san said that I have to picture splitting my chakra in two and grinding them together. I wonder if I'd able to split a leaf using only my Wind chakra.'_

Hastily grabbing another leaf from the branch hovering above him, he concentrated on what Asuma told him earlier.

"... in two... together..." He mumbled and when a bead of sweat formed on his forehead, he glanced down on the leaf and noticed a little, truly a tiny cut on the edge of the leaf.

He wiped the sweat into his sleeve and grinned widely.

_'This... this is a great practice idea! I'm sure that after I'm able to cut the leaf completely, using only my chakra, I can master my jutsu!'_

His clones raised their eyebrows when they saw the original speeding back to them. After an abrupt stop, he waved at them with a leaf in his hand.

"Listen up, I'm changing the orders. From now on, until you can get it done, all of you that were practicing the Wind jutsu, grab a leaf and try to split it using only chakra and keep Asuma-san's advice in mind." Exiting the area after the big group of clones nodded, Naruto thought resolutely:

_'I'm sure that this will be of great help.'_

_A week after raising the gravity seals_

It was a cloudy morning when Naruto woke up with a splitting headache.

His eyes twitched in pain and he grabbed his head.

"Damn it... I guess a week is as much as I can train continuously with my Shadow Clones. My head is killing me."

Even though he was in pain, Naruto managed to smile a bit.

Last evening, after his clones dispelled and he got every piece of their memories, he was ready to celebrate.

The group of clones that was handling his Wind chakra managed to split the leaf.

The group of clones that was handling his Earth chakra managed to perfectly perform the D-ranked jutsu and the C-ranked one needed only slight tweaking.

The group of clones that was handling his kunai throwing managed to strike every target with nice precision. It still wasn't on par with Sasuke, but he was slowly getting there.

The group of clones that was handling his chakra control greatly improved this skill and that was one of the reasons the first group managed to actually split the leaf.

And finally, the group of clones that was handling knowledge and was regularly in the Konoha Library found a book for beginners in Fuinjutsu that almost instantly caught his attention, so he secretly took it home as a reading in his free time. Also, they found a D-rank genjutsu, Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique, a rather weak genjutsu that Naruto remembered Kakashi using on Sakura during the bell test. It was listed as one of the basic Genjutsu and Naruto vowed, that by the time of the Chunin exams, he would learn at least this one Genjutsu, even if he would have to spend dozens of his clones on learning it.

His plan for the next week, in which he wouldn't use his Shadow Clones for training, was simple.

He would use the time to try and find a suitable Taijutsu for him, as his clones that trained it managed to somewhat master the Academy style but it proved to be weak and easy to counter. Not to mention that it didn't suit Naruto.

Also, he would try to get used to this level of Gravity seals, so that he could, by the end of this second week, raise the level again.

_'But first things first. I want to know if my Wind jutsu are stronger after I learned how to cut the leaf in two.'_

In a matter of a few minutes, he arrived at his training place and took a breath to calm his muscles.

Calling out to the memories of his clones, he concentrated on sharpening his chakra and, when he was confident, yelled out his jutsu.

"Wind release: Great Breakthrough!"

"..."

His eyes almost bulged out of their sockets after seeing the effects of his jutsu and he glanced at the destruction.

_'This-this is how I imagined the jutsu to work... damn what a difference...'_

He used a good amount of chakra for this jutsu and the results showed themselves.

A whole line of trees in front of him was quite damaged. The trees had gashes in them, many branches were either cut off, or they broke against the force of the jutsu, almost all of the leaves were ripped from them... one smaller tree was even ripped from the ground, its roots sprawled on the grass.

All in all, for a C-rank jutsu, it was a good amount of damage...

... and it made Naruto grin widely.

_'Just you wait, Sasuke, I'll catch up with you soon... and you wait too, Haku. I'm getting stronger and I will fulfill my promise to you.'_

End of chapter 2

**I'm looking forward to more reviews. Until next time.**


	3. Chapter 3 : How to train your shinobi 2

**Time for another chapter, folks. Thank you for your reviews once again.**

***Venom773 - indeed, I'll try to refrain from any direct bashing.**

***SSJ3_Kyuubi_Gohan - I can't comment without spoilers, but it'd be a long time before I'd even consider giving Sakura a chance with Naruto. **

***Titokhan - the part with Sakura will be touched again and he won't be completely clueless... but to be honest, Naruto is still just a kid. He doesn't know much about love and it would be unreal if he'd after seeing Hinata be like "oh yeah, that chick is obviously after me!". So, he won't be clueless, but he'll still act as an average twelve years old in the same situation. About his parents... it'll be resolved after the Chunin Exams.**

***dbtiger63 - thank you. Unfortunately, the perpetrators for the seal will ... well, you really didn't think I'd say, did you?**

***mugetsudude - thanks, I try :D. I'm thinking of bringing Jirayia, but I'm not sure when it'll happen... maybe around the same time he met him in the canon.**

**Oh yes, and I decided to change the rating of this story. It is no longer T (teen) but M (mature). When you'll get to the final third of the chapter, you'll see why.**

**Credit for beta once again goes to **TheVastEmptiness.

**Chapter 3 – How to train your shinobi pt.2 (Mission of death)**

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

"Normal speech"

'_Inner speech/thoughts'_

**'Kyuubi/Tailed beast speech'**

**xxx**

"Why the long face, Naruto-kun?" Ayame, the daughter of the owner of the ramen stand, asked as she watched Naruto slowly eat his bowl of ramen.

It was obvious that the blonde's mood was low since she never saw him sigh so much and eat his favourite food with such little enthusiasm.

Naruto poked the small piece of pork meat in his meal and sighed again.

"It's just... no matter what I do, I can't seem to grasp this one technique I'm determined to learn. It's been several days and I haven't made any progress at all. It sucks..." He lazily stuck a small amount of noodles in his mouth and chewed on them, frustration written all over his face.

Ayame reached out to him and rubbed his hair with an encouraging smile.

"Cheer up, I'm sure that you'll get it done. After all, you're Konoha's number one most unpredictable ninja, right? There is nothing you can't do, I'm sure of it."

Offering her a half-smile, Naruto nodded and quietly finished his meal. He put some money on the counter and walked away, kicking dirt in the process.

"What's up with him?" The owner of the ramen stand, Teuchi, showed up after hearing Naruto leave.

"It seems he's been having problems with his training." Ayame replied and watched Naruto's back slowly disappear with an anxious frown.

After hearing this, Teuchi chuckled a bit, earning a glare from his daughter.

"Don't worry about Naruto. If there's one thing I learned after having the kid as a customer for this long, it's that no matter what, he won't give up on anything. He may get angry, frustrated or even sad, unlike what most people think, but he'll never give up on his word. It's his nindo, or did you forget?" He quickly stated.

Ayame pouted at him and disappeared in the kitchen.

"Of course I didn't forget, I'm just not used to seeing him sad... it doesn't suit him." She called out.

Teuchi nodded to himself.

_'That is true... it really doesn't suit him. Konoha needs his smiling face.'_

* * *

_With Naruto_

_'She's right... I promised myself that until the Chunin exams, I'd learn that cursed Genjutsu and here I am, only five days later, ready to burst from frustration.'_ Naruto thought more calmly.

_'But damn it, without my Clones, it takes so much time for me to learn it. I should probably focus on something else until I can use my Clones again. It is only two and a half days until then, after all.'_ Jumping from building to building, it took him only few minutes to arrive to his training place.

Getting to the center of the clearing, he cracked his knuckles.

_'Okay, I'm postponing the Genjutsu training until I can use my Clones. Until then I should try to perfect the other jutsu I've been learning.'_

He built up his chakra and went over the hand-seals quite faster than he was able more than a week ago.

"Wind release: Great Breakthrough!"

Watching the destruction with a satisfied grin, his thoughts slowly drifting from the Genjutsu problem, Naruto took out his kunai and threw them at the distant trees.

"Wind release: Gale Palm!"

When all of his kunai hit the wanted marks, sinking deeply into the wood, courtesy of their enhancement with the Gale Palm jutsu, his grin widened.

"Nice... it looks like I have those two mastered already. Now onto the rest of the jutsu."

He smashed the fist into the ground below him.

"Earth release: Earth Shore Return!" Whistling at the wall of earth that rose in front of him, he walked a few steps so that the wall from the jutsu would be only few meters away.

With a loud yell, he jumped and crossed the distant in an instant, aiming a kick at the wall, trying to find out its durability.

A sudden yelp was a clear indication that the wall proved to be harder than his leg.

He massaged his foot and appreciatively nodded at the wall. It had only a small dent in it, which meant that it was at least strong enough to withstand a kick from an average Genin.

That was good enough.

Since his next learned jutsu was only a D-rank, he could now perform it just like it was written in the scroll.

But his grin faltered when he realized that it was time for his last new jutsu.

Sticking his tongue out and biting on it, he hesitated for a moment and then he went through the hand-seals.

"Fire release: Great Fireball!"

"..."

"I knew that this would worsen my mood..." Naruto grunted and wiped his mouth.

After almost two weeks of training, one week consisting of using Shadow Clones, Naruto was still unable to properly perform the Uchiha's signature jutsu.

His fireball was for now only a small orb of fire the size of a football ball.

What was more frustrating, was the fact that he knew that he was doing everything right and he should have been able to master this jutsu a few days ago.

The only problem was the fact, that Fire was not one of his affinities, hence his problems with mastering a jutsu of this element.

"Meh, I'm sure that the more I try to practice, the better I'll get, so no worries."

Remembering the Fireball Sasuke managed to spit the last time he saw him, Naruto clenched his fists.

_'... no worries...'_

Deciding to give himself a free day, he hurried to his apartment to read his Fuinjutsu book.

* * *

_Two and a half days later_

Finding himself at his training place once again, Naruto's mood was entirely different from his last few days.

It was finally time to try and raise the level on the Gravity seals he wore twenty-four/seven.

As per Kakashi's instructions, before he would attempt to do it, he had to release all of the seals, so that he could get used to the sudden increase in his strength and speed.

Forming a single seal, he concentrated.

"Gravity Seals: Release!"

After suddenly feeling incredibly light, Naruto happily smiled and tried to sprint across the clearing...

...only to end up with his face splattered against a tree.

He fell on his butt and massaged the sore places.

His smile was however, still present.

"This is amazing. The increase in speed after getting from the second level to the third is higher when comparing to the increase from the first to the second. I can definitely switch to the third level... and I bet that right now I'm faster than even Sasuke." Laughing in joy, he was in the middle of forming the seal to increase the level when a harsh voice stopped him.

_**'Stop it brat.'**_

It was so sudden that Naruto couldn't help himself and jumped in fear that something or someone found him. Realizing who talked to him, he frowned.

_'Damn it, Kyuubi. You almost gave me a heart attack!'_

Sitting down on the ground, Naruto closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, trying to plunge into his mindscape.

...

_Naruto's mindscape_

"I'm here, Kyuubi, what do you want?"

Naruto had to brace himself when a powerful gust of wind almost knocked him down.

**"Don't talk to me like we are some sort of friends, brat!"** The Nine-Tailed Fox growled at him.

"Oi! I'm grateful that you got rid of the seal for me, but don't forget that we're stuck here together and I'm no longer that scared of you!" Naruto yelled back, masking his small fear of the fox with false bravado.

**"... that's better." **Kyuubi grunted and yawned.

Meanwhile, Naruto sweatdropped and looked at the demon incredulously.

_'That's better? He wants me to yell at him?... I don't get him...'_

"So? What is it?" He asked again and this time, Kyuubi only blowed a light breeze at him.

**"Not much, brat. I just wanted to stop you from doing something stupid."**

Seeing that Naruto only blankly stared at him, Kyuubi continued.

**"Do. Not. Activate. The. Third. Seal. Yet."**

With his eye twitching, Naruto grunted.

"I understand your language, there's no need to be an ass... but why shouldn't I activate the third level?"

The Kyuubi looked at him as if he was stupid.

**"I thought that you were smarter now... listen, brat. You have jumped from zero to be able to handle the third level of those gravity seals in the span of three weeks. Give your body a day to adjust to the increase in speed and strength. An hour was enough when you jumped from the first level but this time, a day should suffice. Or else you'll end up smashing into trees... I thought that you'd think of it as that cyclops' advice was on your mind a minute ago, but I guess there are parts of your brain that are still not functioning properly." **The fox explained.

Naruto felt his face heat up.

"Shut up! I knew that, I was only caught up in the moment!" He yelled in embarrassment.

The Kyuubi only watched him in mild amusement.

_**'Heh, riling up this human is always a nice change of pace...'**_

"Why do you even care so much? Wouldn't it only serve for your amusement if I'm crashing into trees?" Naruto asked suddenly.

When the demon kept silent, he widened his eyes in amused surprise.

"Don't tell me that the great Kyuubi suddenly came to like me."

This time, he was blown away after a blast of wind knocked him from his feet.

**"Do not talk nonsense, human brat! I am the Great Nine-Tailed Fox, the greatest of all Biju! The embodiment of hatred and destruction! If you think that the likes of me would be able to feel something such as 'like', just because you managed to slightly improve yourself, then you're just kidding yourself! Get over yourself, brat. And you know what? Get out, I'm getting tired of you already." **Kyuubi shouted, his previous amusement changed into anger, releasing pulses of chakra that were only stopped thanks to the seal on his cage.

But the effects of the chakra, the malicious intent, were so strong that Naruto had to keep himself from shaking and gulped heavily.

_'Okay, note to self; never piss off Kyuubi ever again.'_

He hastily closed his eyes and awoke in the real world. Wiping his sweaty forehead, he widened his eyes.

_'Wait... did Kyuubi just give me a compliment? Nicely hidden, but still... a compliment?'_

In his mind, Kyuubi was still growling.

_**'Idiotic brat, getting ahead of himself... never think that I'd ever come to 'like' you, brat... someone like me is not capable of that. Respect you? Maybe... if you convince me that you're different than other humans... but if you can't do that, be afraid of the moment when you'll try to control my power, or I'll devour you whole...'**_

* * *

_Following day_

After the little talk with the Kyuubi, Naruto quickly came to realize that the fox saved him some humiliation. He spent the rest of the day trying to get accustomed to his increased speed and strength. It wasn't like he was using another body, but his eyes weren't able to follow the sudden changes in directions whenever he used high speed movements and needed some time to adjust.

His reflexes also needed different timing.

It's cool if you're moving so fast that the enemy can't even spot you and it's also cool if you see where you're going at that velocity.

However, if your reflexes can't react in time to avoid a random obstacle, all of it doesn't matter.

That way, if Naruto tried to show off his new agility without previously adjusting to it, he would only end up humiliating himself.

With his luck, it would be in front of Sasuke.

That thought alone convinced the Genin that he shouldn't speed up his training too much right away.

So he worked hard the whole day, until the stars were the only source of light, barely providing him with enough visibility.

This morning, when he tried to move around a bit, he found out that his senses, reflexes and everything else was up to date and it was time for him to adjust the gravity seals.

He spent only miniscule time to marvel at the capabilities of the human body, that could adjust to new conditions so quickly. The fact that he was a shinobi, whose body was also fully pumped up with chakra made things little bit more believable.

Once again, forming a ram seal he focused on the seals.

"Oh shi-!" He cursed with his legs furiously shaking from the sudden increase of weight pressing down on him.

_'Maaan, if this is only the third level, I don't want to know what the fifth feels like... and to think that Kakashi-sensei said that these gravity seals are 'too low-level' for him... if all of the Jonin are on his level, I pray to God that I won't meet one as my enemy for a long time. Zabuza was crazy strong and even he was beaten by Kakashi-sensei...'_

Biting on his lip, he formed another hand-seal.

"Third level of gravity seals activated, so it's time to get back to my special training. Multiple Shadow Clone jutsu!"

With a neutral expression, still slightly shaking from the pressure on his limbs, he called out to his Clones, gaining their attention.

"As you all know, aside from the Fireball jutsu, we managed to master the rest of the jutsu. So, the same amount of clones that were training the Fireball jutsu will continue to do so until we get the hang of it. The group that was concentrating on hand seals and kunai throwing will now try to learn that one Genjutsu, Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique. I want to have it mastered as quickly as I can. Once again, some of you go to the library and find some new jutsu to learn, preferably at least C-ranked. Send the information the the rest of the clones after you're done... well, you know the drill. Oh, and the Taijutsu group... try to do the same thing you tried last time... maybe we could develop something from it by the time the Chunin exams will take place." Naruto listed and allowed himself a small smile at the end.

The last time he trained with his Clones, they accidentally stumbled on something, while trying to come up with something new to add to his fighting style.

It was still in very early stages of development, but if he could manage to incorporate that particular thing in his Taijutsu, his hand-to-hand skill would turn him into quite a dangerous shinobi quite quickly.

_Later that day_

Naruto was anxiously waiting for the knowledge from his clones in the library and he even momentarily forgot about being upset with Kakashi, or even the fatigue from new level of gravity seals.

Their tardy sensei got them another D-ranked mission, which was now quite visibly frustrating not just Sasuke, who wanted to go on a C-ranked task immediately after the incident in Wave, but now even Naruto couldn't help but be irritated.

One time Kakashi said that he won't hold their hands when being their instructor and next time he was adamant on taking only D-ranked missions because he didn't want to expose them to unneccessary danger.

It was aggravating.

But as he was walking along the river on the outer edge of Konoha, his Clones in the library finally dispelled and he eagerly sat down to sort through their memories.

_'What did the Clones find... two Wind jutsu... wait a second, this will be interesting. Wind Release: Air Bullets – a technique that shoots multiple bullets of air at the victim with intense speed. If the user is highly capable in using wind element, this jutsu can be classified as a B-rank technique. If the ability to manipulate wind element is lower, it becomes only a C-ranked jutsu. Alright, B-ranked it will be.' _Naruto grinned zealously.

_'Next is Wind Release: Wind Cutter Technique... but I don't use any sword or war fan or anything else so why did the Clone read it. I have enough on my plate to suddenly start learning Kenjutsu, so why... ooooooh!' _The blonde slapped his forehead when he came across a memory of his Clones sketching something on a piece of paper.

_'So my Clone came up with the low-powered variant where I don't use any kind of blade to release the wind-slash, but instead I release it after cutting the air with my straightened palm... well, theoretically, it should work. That's for the Wind element, what did they dig up for Earth element?'_

When the memory showed itself, Naruto had to smile.

_'Earth Release: Shadow Clone jutsu. I already have Shadow Clones, but this elemental version seems rather useful. A Clone is made of mud of the user which gives it unique features. It can continue to reform and mould itself back to its original shape as long as it still possesses chakra. Once reverted to mud, the Clone can serve as a powerful restraint, that is capable of completely halting the opponents movements... indeed, very useful. However, being a variation of Shadow Clone technique, it is a B-rank jutsu... I hope I can manage... Well, I'll worry about it later. Second one is Earth Release: Earth Dome jutsu. It creates a dome constructed from the earth, which is used for defense. A C-ranked jutsu. Hmm, it seems that the Earth really is great element for protecting. Good.' _He massaged his head and sighed.

_'And that marks the end for today. The only other thing that my Clones found out is something about seals which I'll try back at my apartment...'_

Content with the amount of new knowledge absorbed from his Clones, Naruto stretched his legs and arms. They were becoming numb from sitting still for the past half hour.

He propped himself and leaned back to relax.

Enjoying the view on the nature around him, he deeply inhaled the scent from the near trees and flowers with a huge smile playing on his lips.

He was becoming stronger and he knew it.

Overall, his skills were drastically improving and in some areas, he was already quite good and he started to train this hard barely a month ago.

For a Genin that didn't come from any Konoha's clan, his Ninjutsu arsenal was quite large. He counted seven mastered techniques and they went from a basic E-ranked jutsu to even one A-ranked. It was only a massive version of Shadow Clone Jutsu, the Multiple Shadow Clone jutsu, but it was still rather impressive for a mere Genin.

His Taijutsu was sporting signs that it would come along, while his Genjutsu skills still sucked.

With his better chakra control, he could most likely dispel some low-level Genjutsu but nothing more.

It still came as a surprise to him when he got the memory from his Clone that read about Genjutsu and how to dispel them.

He was now sure that the instructor in the Academy, that he stayed in detention with, purposely taught him nonsense.

That was quite depressing but he forced that thought into the back of his mind, where his other distasteful memories stayed.

The most important thing was that he was now in possession of the right knowledge on Genjutsu and how to counter them.

After he shook off the blank look he had for the past few minutes, he turned his head to see some kids on his far right playing in the nearby river.

At that sight, his train of thought that was going over his current abilities derailed itself.

He remembered another important fact that he didn't pay attention to at the time he noticed it. Stopping himself, before he would slap his forehead again, Naruto heavily sighed.

_'Once again, I must say, I'm not a clever person, no matter how much I'd like to think I am. To forget such crucial information... ah, better late than never, I guess.'_

He got up, slowly walked to the river bank and removed his sandals along with the socks before walking in the river.

When the water washed his ankles, he shuddered. It was quite cold. He glanced at the kids that were still playing and splashing the same water on themselves, forcing him to shake his head.

Why would they play in such cold water.

But that wasn't the most important question at the moment.

_'... why would I forget such a detail of Kakashi-sensei's and Zabuza's first fight. Both of them were walking ON THE FREAKING WATER SURFACE!... that's why Kakashi-sensei made us do the tree-walking. It was a preparation before he could attempt to teach us the water walking... but I guess that after we managed to finish the Wave mission, once again, our tardy sensei forgot about it... I swear to God that man is less responsible than I ever was... '_ Naruto deadpanned mentally and prepared to try the water walking.

Heeding Kakashi's words when he showed them how to walk on trees, the blonde focused an appropriate amount of chakra to the bottom of his feet and raised his right foot. Slowly, very carefully, he lowered it until it touched the surface of the water.

Something was telling him that this attempt would end as a failure, but nevertheless, he put more weight on his right foot and tried to do the same with his left one.

For one extremely short moment, he seemed to hover, with his feet slightly below the water surface, before he ended on the bottom.

Fortunately for him, he chose to stay near the river bank so the sudden loss of altitude was only minimal and he managed to hold his posture.

_'... it seems that I just found another great chakra control excercise. Tree walking, holding leaf on forehead... both of those pale in comparison to this. Even with my improved chakra control I can't do it properly.'_ Despite that, Naruto widely smiled.

He wasn't happy that he couldn't do something. He was happy that he found something that would make him stronger while trying to master it.

Every little thing like this was only bringing him closer to his dream. Step by step.

Adopting a thinking pose, Naruto stroked his chin.

Yes, Uzumaki Naruto, a kid who just a few months ago used to run all over the village, chased by Chunin or Jonin after pulling a prank on Konoha, was now able to stand still, think calmly in an attempt to try and figure out a problem that had nothing to do with any prank.

It was probably good that nobody that knew him from that time saw him, or else they would have believed that they were trapped in some powerful Genjutsu.

_' So what is needed for water-walking? As I already noted, the tree climbing exercise is most likely something that should prepare you for this. And it proved effective, as I was able to, even if only for a split second, stand on the water. But I fell soon enough... hmmm... that means that it involves focusing your chakra to the bottom of your feet just as well...' _His gaze traveled across the water surface.

_'Think! What more I need to do?' _Tilting his head and crouching a little, he noticed the small waves, the trepidation of the water surface.

The sight gave him a sudden clarity.

_'Yes, that must be it. Water is never steady, never calm. It always moves so the surface is not as simple as wood. Sometimes, as it flows around your feet or under it, you have more or less amount of surface on which you can stand on... that must mean one thing. You can't simply coat your feet with a fixed amount of chakra, you have to constantly change the amount you emit.'_ Changing his tactics, he tried, once again, to focus his chakra to the bottom of his right foot and put it on the water surface.

His weight was still on his other leg as he wanted for a moment to just try to feel the constant changes in the water he was touching with his right foot.

Inhaling through his nose, he tried to steady and slow his breathing.

For somebody that was always packed to the brim with energy, standing still on his one leg was almost a painful thing. He was basically trying not to move, just to feel the cold liquid on the skin of his foot.

He closed his eyes and opened his eardrums to the sound of the nature that surrounded him. It always helped him calm down after a stressful day.

Naruto stayed in that position for a few minutes before finally feeling it.

_'Okay, now focus on the changes and adjust the flow of the chakra to it... less water equals less chakra... come on Naruto, you can do it...'_

As a bead of sweat lazily trailed his cheekbone, his foot that was hovering on the water's surface slowly shook before becoming still.

With gritted teeth from the constant demand on his concentration, he shifted his body weight on his right foot and, feeling it was somewhat steady, he repeated the process with his left foot.

A few moments later, a sweaty Naruto with closed eyes, clenched jaw and his arms hovering in the air trying to hold his balance, managed to stand on the water surface for a full five seconds...

... before his concentration broke and he fell on his butt, drenching his clothes with water.

This time, he welcomed the cold liquid that helped him to cool off.

With his left hand he went through his hair but, despite everything, his smile was still present.

"Whew! That was an amazing feeling... time for round two."

* * *

_Two days later_

There was one thing that was momentarily on Naruto's mind.

Every day he was discovering new variations to the techniques in his repertory, new ways of improving his chakra control, new knowledge that went straight to his brain with incredible speed. A different approach to further mastering stuff he knew. It was mind-boggling just how much he missed during those years when his brain was functioning on lower level. Just how much material he could uncover that would gain his attention.

All in all, the limit of only one hundred Shadow Clones for training purposes was slowly becoming a huge problem.

After the last few weeks he accumulated so much knowledge he was eager to try and one hundred clones was simply not enough anymore.

It was very tempting to try to use more of them but after his last attempt, the thought of the splitting headache always stopped him from actually doing it. So there was only one thing he could do.

He had to start cutting off some of the things he trained in.

Being a twelve years old boy, it was making him irritated.

Thankfully, he wasn't a complete moron anymore so he could somewhat keep calm and not snap at the first person that approached him.

Not that it happened that often. Kids and villagers were still wary of him and the quiet time of no pranks coupled with his more mature attitude only made them more suspicious.

So, it was because of his new attitude that he could think about it and admit one thing.

One hundred Clones, two hundred Clones or even thousand of them. No matter how many Clones he would use for training, there wasn't a way for a human being to learn everything on this world that he would want to.

It would be possible only in one case.

If there was nothing else that could interest him from this day onward.

Even a twelve years old kid like Naruto knew that it would actually never happen.

The human race was always intrigued by the things it noticed all around itself. Endless possibilities everywhere.

With that in mind, Naruto changed his training regiment.

His Clones were now, until further notice, doing the following:

20 Clones were learning Wind jutsu.

20 Clones were learning Earth jutsu.

10 Clones were learning Fireball jutsu.

10 Clones were doing Library research.

10 Clones were practicing Taijutsu.

20 Clones were learning Genjutsu.

10 Clones were doing water-walking to improve chakra control.

Those were the things Naruto deemed the most important for the time being.

Little did he know, he would change his regiment very soon.

* * *

_Ten days later_

"Could you please repeat that, Kakashi-sensei? I don't think I heard you right." Naruto stared at Team 7's Jonin-sensei in disbelief.

"What the dobe said." Sasuke hmph-ed after him.

Sakura only gulped when she noticed the excited flames in eyes of the both boys.

Kakashi facepalmed.

_'Am I really that bad?' _He sulked mentally.

"You heard right. I said that we are going on another C-rank mission. I believe that enough time has passed since the mission in Wave country and that you're all ready even if something similar should happen." Kakashi stated, eye-smiling at them encouragingly.

Well, mainly at Sakura, who was still unsure, as Sasuke looked as if Kakashi just told him that he got rid of all of his fangirls.

Naruto smiled too but in his head, he was eyeing the rest of his team suspiciously.

_'How can Kakashi-sensei claim that he believes we all are ready for unexpected? Did Sasuke or Sakura approach him for training?... Nah, Sakura is still a fangirl and Sasuke's ego is too big for him to just ask for help with something.'_ Memories of their shared tree-climbing training came to his mind, when Sasuke begrudgingly asked Naruto for some tips.

_'... although, he may have swallowed his pride. We'll see.'_

"So what is this mission?" He glanced at Kakashi who was once again engrossed in his little orange book, grinning perversely.

Kakashi coughed to regain his composure after reading a particularly spicy scene.

_'Oh Yuko, you dirty girl...'_

"Ehm, similar to the Wave mission, it consists mainly of escort service and protection for two men, Tenichi and Kenichi, a father and son. They asked for Konoha for safe arrival to their small village near the Tenchi Bridge in the Village Hidden in the Grass. Since that Village is our ally and couldn't offer its shinobi for this particular mission, Konoha offered its help." He explained and nodded to Sakura, who had a raised hand.

"Why do they need an escort if their village is small? I mean, I doubt that they are such prominent figures that they would be afraid of mugging, right?" She questioned nervously.

"Doesn't matter, we finally have a C-rank mission. I want to go as soon as we can." Sasuke suddenly stated, giving Sakura a slight glare.

Kakashi quickly waved his hands between them to diffuse the tension.

"Mah, mah, no need to get snippy, Sasuke. We _are_ doing this mission, don't worry. To answer your question, Sakura, no, they are not celebrities nor they are overly rich. However, they mentioned that they received a message from their village that it was being assaulted by a band of bandits and there is a possibility that they are still there."

Hearing this, Sakura gulped but she didn't want to aggravate Sasuke further, so she stayed quiet.

"We will meet them in one hour at Konoha Gates. Pack your things quickly. We will travel a lot slower so this mission will take few days at least." Kakashi added and waited until Sakura and Sasuke ran to their homes.

Naruto too was on his way but was forced to stop when Kakashi appeared in front of him with a serious expression on his face.

Raising one eyebrow, Naruto coughed.

"... what is it, Kakashi-sensei?"

The Jonin appeared to hesitate for a moment before deciding on something.

"I'm sorry for singling you out but this concerns only you and I'm not sure if it would be wise telling this to Sasuke or Sakura."

Naruto tapped with his foot.

"I'm waiting, Kakashi-sensei."

_'I didn't think this through, I didn't think this through... I definitely didn't think this through...' _Kakashi thought.

"Listen Naruto, I don't know how much attention you paid to the instructors in the Academy when they were talking about geography but just so you know, the Village Hidden in the Grass and the small country it is located in are the only things that separate the Land of the Fire and the Land of the Earth. Therefore, there is some risk of us getting into contact with Iwagakure's, the Village Hidden by Rocks', shinobi." He sent a meaningful look to Naruto who tried to remain calm, as he was suspecting what was Kakashi trying to say.

"So? Why should it bother just me?" Naruto asked, in his mind grateful that his voice didn't waver.

Kakashi stayed silent for a moment, carefully analyzing Naruto's expression. The Genin was hoping that his blank stare would fool the Copy-nin.

"Naruto, I know that the Fourth Hokage was always your idol so you must know about him and his exploits. It was during the Third Shinobi World War that the Fourth Hokage gained his famous nickname 'Konoha's Yellow Flash'. With one jutsu he managed to decimate a whole platoon of Iwa's shinobi, practically ending the war itself. That's why, to this day, many Iwa's shoinobi are most likely holding a grudge against him." Kakashi replied, his expression becoming quite melancholic, which Naruto noticed but filed to examine later.

"Once again, Kakashi-sensei, why does it concern me?" Naruto's hands shook a little but, fortunately, Kakashi was paying close attention only to his face.

_'Ah, he's not making this easy... damn it, should I tell him this? I'm inclined to say that two months ago, I'd have no problems with this but nowadays Naruto looks and acts much more mature and level-headed than before and he may suspect something... no. I have to tell him or he might lose his life and I can't allow that.' _Kakashi gathered his resolve and looked Naruto dead in the eyes.

"Because your resemblance with the Fourth Hokage is quite extreme and with these new clothes, you're a splitting image of him."

...

_'Did... did he just say what I think he said? He actually said it out loud... the nerve of this guy... fine, I don't have any hard evidence that would support my theory, but still... Although... the impression Kakashi-sensei is giving off talks a lot... I have to try to remain calm so that he wouldn't suspect anything... I don't want him to think that I know something or things would get messy and no matter how much I want to know about my parents, in an hour I will need to be able to concentrate on the mission...' _Naruto's mind was working at one hundred percent, trying to somehow absorb the implications and remain calm. With a pure force of will, he created a happy smile on his face.

"T-that's great! I'm a step closer to becoming a Hokage like the Fourth was, aren't I?" His little stutter went unnoticed and Kakashi visibly relaxed with a heavy sigh.

He shot Naruto a thumbs up.

"Of course Naruto, but that's why you have to be more careful than Sasuke or Sakura. Sasuke is the last surviving member of the Uchiha that's still in this village, but he is of no interest to Iwagakure. However, iIf they spot you, I'm afraid that they would attack you instantly... and if that happens, I want you to run and find me." Naruto quickly nodded and excused himself.

_'Mah, I was worrying for nothing. I must have been imagining things after the Wave mission. He's still the same Genin at the core.'_ Kakashi falsely thought and hurried to meet their clients.

Meanwhile, Naruto was nearing his apartment.

When he stepped inside his small home, he collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily.

Leaning on the wall, he cursed quietly.

"Damn it! Damn it, damn it, damn it! Kakashi-sensei... it's so obvious... you know the truth! So why aren't you saying anything?! Do I, the one who should know it in the first place, have no right to know the truth? Why?"

He punched the floor beneath him angrily and cursed again.

"Why, damn it!"

* * *

_Hour later, Gates of Konoha_

The blonde was pacing around in circles, slightly calmer than an hour before.

_'Okay, I should be fine now... I already promised myself that I'll only gather information about my parents if I can find it and I won't look for it intentionally... now I'm completely positive that Kakashi-sensei knows the truth... I'll just have to wait until he tells me... and there must be something that prevents him from doing it... no, calm down, you're getting frustrated again...' _Naruto was talking to himself mentally while he and the rest of Team 7 waited for their clients to arrive at the Gates of Konoha.

Sakura was unusually quiet and only occasionally glancing at Sasuke, who was rather focused on the task ahead of him. The prospect of doing a C-ranked mission again was quite a remedy for his mood and he hadn't frowned or grimaced even once in the past hour.

Kakashi was leisurely reading his favourite _Icha Icha_ novel.

Surprisingly, he was the first one at the Gates which garnered him a shocked look from Sakura, an amused shake of the head from Naruto, and a surprised _'hmph'_ from Sasuke.

"Ah, sorry Kakashi-san, Kenichi mistook the time for departure so we're a little late." Naruto turned around to see a middle-aged, average looking man with a hard jaw-line and edged chin wearing standard merchant clothing. The only thing that stood out on him was a long ponytail swinging behind his head.

"We're paying them so they'd wait for us no matter how long it would take for us to come, father." A kid, probably fifteen years old by Naruto's estimate, slightly taller than Sasuke and Naruto, lazily started walking from behind his parent.

_'Okay, I already don't like this guy.'_ Surprisingly, the same thought went through both Naruto's and Sasuke's mind when looking at the merchant's son, Kenichi.

The boy had only one plus. He was wearing nice clothes and his face would be quite handsome, if he wasn't scowling at Team 7.

Though, his appearance was enough for Sakura to ignore his verbal jab and she hurried to check him out.

_'Weeeell, he's quite good-looking, just below Sasuke-kun.'_ The pink-haired kunoichi thought.

_**'Blasphemy, Sasuke-kun is loads better than him, cha!'**_ Inner Sakura quickly added, forcing Sakura to nod to herself in real life.

"Kenichi! Be nice. They are going to guard us." Tenichi reprimanded his son loudly and turned to Kakashi.

"Sorry about my son."

Kakashi just waved in dismissal.

"It's fine Tenichi-san. These are my students, the blondie is Naruto, pinkie is Sakura and the brooder is Sasuke." He pointed to each of the Genin, earning three scowls.

Tenichi nodded to them while Kenichi snorted and, after looking at Sakura the longest, he mumbled "Meh, big forehead and flat as a table... I thought that at least the girl would be a bit good-looking..." after which Naruto and Sasuke had to physically restrain their female comrade from jumping at the boy in anger.

Kakashi only sighed and moved forward.

_'This is going to be a long mission.'_

_..._

_Two and a half days later, few miles until the village_

Just like Kakashi predicted, the journey so far was indeed long. It even felt longer than it really was, thanks to the constant verbal match between Kenichi and Sakura.

The girl had been angry at him since their meeting at Konoha Gates and Kenichi didn't do anything to change the vibe he was giving off. On the contrary, since his comments seemed to easily rile Sakura up, he only regularly came up with new jibes.

It left Sasuke and Naruto with the task of holding the girl off from him.

He wouldn't admit it out loud, but even if he couldn't bring himself to like the guy, Naruto had to acknowledge that Kenichi could make up interesting insults.

That was until the boy tried to do the same with him. Only with his Will of Fire, Naruto was able to resist strangling Kenichi who, after getting no visible reaction from him, focused his insults back at Sakura.

Kenichi once tried it on Sasuke, but one stare with the added effect of the glowing Sharingan quickly shut him up.

Even Kakashi was on the receiving end of provoking.

But with his cool attitude like _'Oh, you said something?',_ the Jonin quickly forced Kenichi to return to Sakura.

So there they were, two and a half days later, slowly nearing the small village.

Everything was going as planned. Nobody tried to rob or attack them. Even the weather was beautiful that day, with the sun mightily shining on their faces while the light breeze constantly cooled them off.

Even Kenichi was in a good mood, talking with his father and, for once, not trying to insult anyone.

Despite all of this, there was a dreadful feeling growing in Naruto's stomach. It was like an animalistic instinct telling him that there was a danger of some sort ahead of them.

He slowly approached Kakashi and waited for the man to notice him.

"Yes, Naruto?"

The said Genin came closer and pointed with his eyes to the land in front of them.

"Kakashi-sensei... I don't know why, but I have a bad feeling about this mission. Something tells me that we won't find a happy village, waiting for two of their civilians with eagerness. On the contrary, it's as if something bad happened to them... I'm sorry if I sound like a crazy person but-" He stopped with his open mouth when Kakashi shook his head.

"It's not just you, Naruto. Unfortunately, I feel the same. The land... the country around us feels dead. No, I must correct myself. It reeks of death... I think you're right and what we'll see won't be pretty. Be cautious and inform Sasuke and Sakura too." Kakashi whispered, trying not to be heard by their clients.

Naruto immediately slowed down and reached his two teammates to report the news.

As he expected, Sakura was oblivious to the feeling while Sasuke admitted to being nervous for some unknown reason.

When the outskirts of the village were visible, Naruto felt a growl in his mind.

_'What is it, Kyuubi?'_

The Nine-Tailed beast growled again.

_**'Death.'**_

Naruto widened his eyes at that and, cursing his own luck, he sped up, passing Kakashi and leaving the rest of the team behind.

"No! Naruto! Shit." Kakashi tried to unsuccessfully stop his student.

"Sasuke! Sakura! Remember the formation, there's trouble ahead. Tread with caution. Tenichi-san, Kenichi-san, keep yourselves between me and those two and, whatever happens, don't leave that position." Kakashi yelled at the rest of his team.

Sakura gulped and nodded along with Sasuke who, for once, wasn't eager for a fight.

However, Kakashi's yell managed to freak out their clients who started to run, trying to get to the village as fast as they could.

Now cursing heavily, Kakashi sped up and arrived before the rest, only a moment after Naruto did.

**-WARNING: BLOOD & GORE AHEAD-**

...

"Wha-wha... what the hell is this?" Naruto fell on his knees, ghostly pale at the sight he would remember for the rest of his life.

"I..." Kakashi was at loss for words.

"Kakashi-sensei, what happ-" Sasuke and Sakura stopped next to their sensei but the question in their eyes died as soon as they turned to see the village.

Or what was left of it.

One could tell that it must have been a very nice and pleasant town once.

If only you could see what was under the countless dead bodies scattered all around.

It was truly a horrific sight, seeing chopped legs hanging from nearby trees, arms lying on the roofs full of blown holes and eyeless heads impaled on short sticks, just aimlessly rolling on the ground. Those heads that were lucky enough to have their eyeballs still intact were prey to the flock of crows that were cackling loudly, adding to the dead atmosphere.

It took them only a moment but all of the Genin had to turn around.

Never in their life have they vomited as hard as that day.

"Kakashi-san, is ev... ery... no... no!... Mira! Mai!" Seeing the death all around him, Tenichi screamed and ran to the distant house.

"Wait! Tenichi-san!" Kakashi cursed and hastily turned to his students.

"Stay here, don't move one step. I'm going after him." In an instant, the Jonin was away.

"No... no way." Naruto glanced behind him to see Kenichi falling on his knees, vomiting just as hard as he did moments before.

The blonde turned to Sakura and wanted to say something but his mouth were tightly shut.

She wouldn't even hear him. The Konoha kunoichi was shaking terribly, tears rapidly falling from her eyes.

Naruto himself was in shock so seeing Sasuke suddenly crouch next to Sakura and turn her over so that she would look to his eyes didn't even faze him.

He only broke out of his stupor when Sasuke whispered something to the pinkette and patted her on the back.

What Sasuke said wasn't meant for his ears, but it worked, and Sakura suddenly hugged the last Uchiha, crying on his shoulder. Unusually, Sasuke returned the hug and looked only slightly uncomfortable.

He caught Naruto's eyes and nodded to him, pointing at Sakura with his eyes.

Naruto nodded back and silently thanked him.

_'I... I'll have to thank him later...'_ Was the only coherent thought in Naruto's mind.

Gulping heavily, he disregarded Kakashi's orders and walked around a bit, trying to look for any survivors.

Every fiber in his body was feeling sick at the view he was offered. The villagers must have been dead for a few days as crows weren't the only animals that came there.

Fleas were buzzing above the dead, torn bodies, occasionally landing on some of them.

Naruto cursed when his foot sank into the ground.

With disgust, he pulled it out and almost had to vomit again.

The ground was so soaked with blood, it practically became a red mud.

The finishing line for Naruto was when he found the still whole bodies of a bunch of women.

Even if they were dirty from the blood and the mud, even if they were partially clothed one thing was obvious from the first glance.

The women in this village weren't murdered by any kind of weapon or jutsu.

They were raped to death.

A chill creeped in to his very bones at that piece of information, and Naruto had to try really hard not to let Kyuubi's chakra influence him.

It reminded him of something he'd hoped to never remember again, as long as he lived.

Walking past the dead women, he came across a younger girl, barely looking older than him, that apparently suffered the same fate.

That was enough and something in Naruto broke.

The anger, revulsion, and hatred towards those who committed such crimes reached a whole new level in him and those feelings poured themselves into his very chakra and for the first time in his life, Naruto unleashed his own Killing Intent.

...

Some distance away, Kakashi was comforting Tenichi who was unable to find the bodies of his wife and daughter. He didn't want to say it to the man, but maybe it was for the best.

It was in that moment that he felt Naruto's Killing Intent that seemed to slowly cover the whole village.

_'N-Naruto is doing this? But he's only a Genin and I can't even feel Kyuubi's hatred in it... it's all himself... who could fault him, it must be his first time seeing this, Sakura too... Sasuke probably saw something similar already... I have to take Tenichi back, this Killing Intent is crazy for a Genin, he must calm himself or he will suffocate Tenichi and Kenichi.'_ Kakashi thought in alarm and softly got Tenichi up and walked towards his team's location.

...

_'Th-this feeling! It's just like on the bridge in Wave with Zabuza... it's a Killing Intent, but who could...' _Sasuke tried to calm himself from the chill he was feeling. Fortunately, as Sasuke was holding Sakura, he was shielding her from the effects of the intent, or else he was sure that Sakura would collapse.

He looked around in disgust.

_'... and I can't blame her... this is a lot worse than what happened in the Uchiha compound... __**he**__ at least had the honor to kill all of them quickly, but these people were killed brutally, painfully... I think I'm going to be sick again...'_

He jerked himself when he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Kakashi's concerned face.

"Kakashi-sensei... " Sasuke sighed nervously.

Kakashi glanced at the shaking Sakura and mouthed a silent 'thank you' to Sasuke.

"I'm here. We couldn't find Tenichi's wife or daughter and I think I'm actually glad for the poor man. He would've broken. I think that he should stay with his son for the moment... wait... where is Naruto?" A sudden fear crawled into his eyes.

Sasuke widened his eyes and glanced at his right where he saw Naruto last time.

"I... I don't know. He was here just a minute ago."

Kakashi cursed and stared at Sasuke.

"I'm going to look for him. In the meantime, continue to do what you're doing and keep an eye out for those two behind you. I don't think that those who did this are still here, but after..." He pointed to the dead bodies to emphasize his point.

"... we can't be too sure. I'll be back with Naruto soon." He continued and waited for Sasuke to nod.

After that, he vanished in an instant.

...

_With Naruto_

_'Animals... they're animals! How could a human being do something like that just for what?... Fun?! Even revenge like this is too much...'_

Naruto was jumping through the forest, leaving foot marks on tree branches as he was pumping his whole body with too much chakra.

He was furious.

It didn't help that the images that he just saw reminded him of some of his own memories of such barbarism.

For the sake of those who did it, he hoped that they were long gone. Otherwise, he was fully prepared to do terrible things to them.

Unfortunately, he came across something even more vile.

...

_Half a mile away from the village_

"Lookie here, don't I have a nice scarf? It's so warm... hehe... " A woman covered in blood and mud was grinning crazily at a motionless body of a little boy.

Said boy had his eyes widened to their limits and his mouth was opened in a scream that'd died few moments ago from the mixture of agonizing pain, fear and shock.

He was completely nude and tied to a dinner table, the woman that talked to him hovering slightly above his belly with a bloody knife and even more bloody hands.

She was shaking terribly.

Maybe from shock.

Maybe from the insanity that was present in her eyes.

She plunged her hand into the deep wound she'd made on the boy's body and sighed in content.

"Aah, you're so warm... almost like your sister was, hehe..."

"Oh my god... " Naruto arrived just in time to see the woman pulling out her hand, full of the boy's innards.

He hunched over and vomited again.

When he wiped his mouth and looked closer, he had to take a step back.

_'... is... are those intestines that she's wearing as a scarf?' _He thought numbly.

The woman hadn't noticed him and just circled around the table, giving Naruto a view of the two small bodies that were with her in the room.

Naruto froze and started to shake.

His eyes filled themselves with tears.

His veins filled themselves with rage.

And his Killing Intent returned with such force that the woman had to stop walking.

His face expressionless, he walked forward, barely registering the blood-soaked floor.

The scene before him was even worse than the one he saw in the center of the village.

A small frame of a girl, younger than him, was lying on the bed, fully naked which he couldn't even notice. The reason was simple. She was bloodied to the point where no spot on her body was clean. Her face was twisted in agony at what she must have felt from the obvious marks of torture she had on herself.

Her small body was covered with cuts and gashes, some of the skin on her arms was missing and a huge hole was present at the place where her bellybutton should have been.

However, the worst part was something else.

It was a thick wooden stick that was plunged into her genitalia so deep that the tip was visible through the hole in her belly.

If he'd had any food left in his stomach, Naruto was sure that it would already be spitted out.

A small movement caught his attention and he turned around...

...to see the last breath of the boy on the table.

_'He was still alive?'_ He thought in horror and his rage intensified.

With a swift movement he kicked the women out of the small cabin and followed her flying body.

Outside he watched as she slowly got up, laughing madly.

"... hehe, I'll have another nice scarf... hehe..."

Naruto grimaced in disgust and clenched his fists.

"I don't know your circumstances or anything... but after what you've done, you don't deserve to live." He quietly snapped at the woman and flashed to her with his right fist aiming at her torso.

When he made contact with the woman, her torso suddenly exploded in a shower of blood.

With a gaping hole in her chest, the crazy woman gurgled and fell on the ground, dead before her body hit it.

Naruto flinched when he opened his palm and watched as the wounds in it started to heal, thanks to Kyuubi.

He suddenly spoke to his tenant in a numb voice.

_'You know, Kyuubi... in moments like these... I can almost understand your hatred towards the human race. We really are savages in fancy clothes, animals in disguise.'_

A small growl answered him.

_**'What do you want me to say, brat? That you're wrong? No... someone that would turn on his own race and do such despicable things to them is not worthy of living. I am the Kyuubi, a Nine-Tailed Fox. I hate the human race and I enjoy killing humans. I hate animals and I enjoy killing them too. I am the embodiment of hate and destruction. I even hate some of my fellow Bijuu and would gladly beat them down... and I would enjoy it. But every action I do is swift and precise. I don't torture others for my pleasure... that's something that is reserved for humans.'**_

Naruto laughed hollowly.

_'Do you want to know the funny part?... I believe that you are less of a monster than some people.'_

He averted his gaze from the woman's dead body with a repulsed scowl.

_' ... it seems that my promise to Haku will take a long time to accomplish...'_

"Damn, kid. You're brutal."

Naruto widened his eyes at the foreign voice coming from behind him.

Very slowly he reached to his pouch and twisted around to face the newcomer with a kunai already in his hand.

"Who are you!" He yelled instantly.

"Well, if ... you?!" The unknown person suddenly screamed and her face twisted itself in anger.

That confused Naruto and the only thing he was able to notice before he had to dodge incoming kunai was a forehead protector and he quietly cursed.

The person in front of him was a shinobi.

A shinobi from Iwagakure.

End of chapter 3.


End file.
